The Gamer: Tsuna
by MariaDreaming
Summary: At nine years old, Tsuna gains the power of the gamer. The Vongola won't know what hit them.
1. Game Start

**Disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a

 **AN:** I've changed the system shown in The Gamer a bit to better fit the Reborn! Universe.

….

Tsuna tended to like dreams.

He didn't like nightmares, but he liked dreams. So he didn't really blink when he found himself standing in front of a display titled "The Game". Beneath that display was a smaller display saying "Start?" Tsuna also liked games, and so he poked the start display. The display changed to "Welcome". As the area around him faded to white, Tsuna absently wondered what kind of game this would be.

…

Tsuna was in his bed, looking at an orange screen above his head that said "You got 8.75 hours of sleep!" Tsuna thought that it was interesting. Was it a part of his dream game?

He got up and dressed, quietly noting the various displays. "You got dressed!" "Time: 7:12" "Breakfast is ready!"

"Tsu-kun! Breakfast is ready!" Nana called from downstairs.

"Coming!" he yelled back. Tsuna jogged out of his room…

… and promptly tripped over his own feet and fell down the stairs. As his various aches and pains made themselves known, Tsuna blearily realized that there was a new display. "You have lost 1HP."

It wasn't a game.

Tsuna promptly had a hysterical breakdown.

…

Nana could be quite oblivious sometimes. But even she could see that something was very wrong with her son, and so Tsuna was allowed to stay home.

It took three days of hiding in bed for Tsuna to realize that no, the displays weren't going away and yes, this was his life now. And so it was a red-eyed and quiet Tsuna that got up to prepare for school on Saturday. He did his best to ignore the various displays and went down for breakfast a lot slower than normal. Even so, he could not quite ignore the display above Nana that said "Sawada Nana Housewife LV 12". Or the one above his cereal that said "Cereal + 1HP". Tsuna did try though.

It was on the way to Namimori Elementary that Tsuna discovered there were benefits to his new life. He was walking down the road when a bright orange flashing display popped up saying "HIDE". Tsuna didn't question it but hid behind a few trashcans in a nearby alley. A few minutes later a group of three young men stumbled past, dressed like hooligans with bright red faces. One was waving a knife. The display above their heads read a name and "Junior Yakuza LV 16"

Tsuna could barely dare to breathe as the men stumbled past. It was clear that these men were dangerous. After a few minutes, once it was obvious that the yakuza weren't coming back, Tsuna crept out of his hiding spot. As he continued walking to school, he reflected on what had happened. If Tsuna hadn't hid when he had, he could have gotten seriously hurt. Maybe this game thing wasn't so bad.

It was with a lighter heart that Tsuna slipped through the gates of his school a few minutes before the bell rang. This time, as he hurried to his seat in his classroom, Tsuna was careful to take note of the displays. There was one above each of his classmates' heads, saying their name, Classmate, and their LV. Tsuna noted that with the exception of a few people, all of his classmates were LV3. The exceptions were a Kurokawa Hana and a Mochida Kensuke, who were both LV4. Tsuna remembered that Kurokawa was considered the class genius and Mochida was a rising kendo star. So maybe that was why.

When the teacher entered, Tsuna noticed that the teacher's LV was 15. So did a person's LV increase with age? But the new yakuza looked younger than his mother and the teacher, and they had a higher LV. Tsuna remembered seeing something like this before. He'd check it out when he got home.

…

Well, that was unusual, Tsuna thought as he looked at his homework, or really the display overlaid on his homework. It said "Daily Mission: Homework. Complete all problems on your homework and turn it in! Time limit: 2 days. Reward: +5XP, increase reputation with teacher. Fail Penalty: Decrease reputation, increase teasing." Tsuna shrugged. He'd think about it later. Right now, he wanted to see what else the game could tell him about his town.

Tsuna took the long route home, wandering through the town of Namimori. He passed by shops and houses, looking to see what the displays said. It wasn't difficult to see that most adults had LVs in the teens, although some of the elderly and a few others had LVs in the twenties. Tsuna spent at least an hour wandering around the shopping district, watching all the people and trying to figure out LVs and what they meant. There was a group of extremely well-dressed, pretty young women shopping, but they all had very low LVs. The highest one was LV 11. On the other hand, there was a homeless man eating food that he may have pulled from one of the garbage cans, who had a LV of 22. Did that mean that the less well-off you were the higher your LV? But the kids at school were almost all the same LV, and some had more than others. Tsuna didn't get it. Furthermore, a lot of people had question marks above their heads. Tsuna didn't know why that was either.

Eventually Tsuna wandered home. He greeted Nana and walked upstairs to his room. Once there, he laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. There was something about LVs that sounded familiar. Tsuna rolled over and looked out the window. The sky was blue, the trees were green, and a yellow bird was flying past. Yellow… like Pokémon! That was where Tsuna had seen LVs before.

Tsuna rolled out of bed and ran to the desk where he kept his things. He quickly searched through the desk and located his Gameboy. The Gameboy and Tsuna's Pokémon game were both from Tsuna's 8th birthday. Tsuna had tried to get through the game but he kept losing all his matches, so eventually he stopped playing. Tsuna booted up the game and loaded one of his games. It took him a few minutes to remember how to work the game, but once he did, he quickly located where he had seen the term LV.

"Oh," said Tsuna. "L-V means _level_."

…

After thinking about it, Tsuna realized that it made sense. Levels in Pokémon were gained through experience, or learning things, especially through fights. The pretty young women mustn't had learned or experienced a lot over their lives while the homeless man must have had a very interesting life. Older people had learned more than Tsuna and his classmates. And Mochida and Kurokawa had gotten the levels they had through hard work or talent. In that case… what LV was Tsuna? Tsuna looked in the mirror. Floating above his head was the display "Sawada Tsunayoshi Vongola Heir LV3"

Tsuna had no idea what that meant.

…

Once dinner was done, Tsuna went back to look at his Pokémon game. If he could see LVs, maybe he could do other things too.

Tsuna looked at the Gameboy's screen. He could check his Pokémon's status, and he also had an inventory he could look at.

Having a place he could put things sounded cool, but Tsuna doubted that there would be anything cool in there. So then…

"Status," tried Tsuna. Immediately another orange box popped up. It said:

"Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV3

HP 46

FP 25

Strength 5

Constitution 5

Agility 3

Intelligence 4

Wisdom 8

Luck 3"

Then, on the side there were tabs labeled Status, Passive Effects, Inventory, Abilities, Social, and Map.

Tsuna frowned at his agility and luck scores. He knew he was clumsy, but a three seemed a little low if his strength was a five. And a three for luck did not sound good. Plus, he had no idea what Vongola or Constitution meant. Well, there wasn't anything he could do about it right now.

Tsuna decided to go down the list of tabs. He poked Passive Effects. A new listed replaced the previous one on the display. Tsuna read:

"Vongola Direct Lineage Heir: SEALED

IX's Seal: -50% all abilities. -50% all experience gain."

Tsuna stopped. He went and reread the second line. Then sat back. For the second time in a week Tsuna's view of the world shattered. He wasn't inherently dame.

…

Ever since he had started school, it was obvious that Tsuna was not the best student. Even in third grade his average was a 62.5, far worse than most of the students in his class. It didn't help that he was inherently clumsy and could apparently trip over air. Tsuna had simply assumed that he was dame, or useless, just as his classmates said. But now he had proof that he wasn't. He was made to be dame by this seal thing.

For the first time in a long time, Tsuna felt something like fire sparking to life in his stomach, and it felt like anger and hope. Anger because _he was a kid_ , and someone _still did this to him_. Hope because maybe he wouldn't always be this way. He could possibly break _free_.

And with that thought an ache that seemed to echo through Tsuna's soul rose up from deep inside him.

Tsuna's eyes closed. He _would_ break free.

It was filled with new resolve that Tsuna went to sleep that night.

…

When Tsuna awoke in the morning, the display box was still hovering over him. As the heady anger-hope from last night had not yet subsided, Tsuna spent a few minutes just staring at it, giddy from his emotional cocktail.

Then a problem asserted itself.

Tsuna had no idea how to break the seal.

For a moment, despair again overwhelmed him.

But this time, it didn't drag on for three days. Because this time, he had hope. And he had this weird game thing that might help him. So this time he opened his eyes and continued reading the display above him.

"Cute: +25% rep. -50% rep with bullies and females with the jealous effect"

"HIEEEEEE?"

…

So maybe the game thing wasn't all good. But it was sometimes good, so after Tsuna got over the fact that it had decided that he was cute _he was not cute he was just small and fluffy_ he began to read again.

"Sky: SEALED

Cared For: -5% HP loss, -25% HP loss while in home

Gamer: Body and Mind react as though reality is a video game. It is easier to keep calm in combat situations and more difficult to gain crippling injuries.

Everything Happens to Me: Random chance encounters and special events may happen at any time"

And that was all, but it was plenty to think about, especially considering that last one and his luck.

Tsuna shivered on his bed. He did not need more problems in his life.

Even so, his curiosity resurfaced and he decided to look at the other tabs.

Inventory, like he thought, did not contain anything cool in it. It did, however, include a body thing that included the clothes he was wearing and a little bar at the bottom of the display that told him he had no money.

Abilities, meanwhile, had a lot of things in it.

Tsuna read.

"Cooking: LV1. Cook good food that can raise HP and MP

Tsuna snorted inwardly. He could toast bread and prepare a bowl of cereal or a simple sandwich. LV1 indeed.

"Cleaning: LV1. Tidying places to make them more habitable.

"Draw: LV3. Ability to create pictures on paper.

"Japanese Language: LVMAX. Ability to fluently read, write and speak Japanese.

"Mathematics: LV4. Ability to understand numbers and equations.

"Physical Endurance: LV3. You have become used to pain, to the point you can ignore it"

And didn't that say something about his clumsiness.

"Science: LV2. Ability to understand the physical world around you

Sing: LV5. Create music with your voice.

Sprint: LV2. Run fast for a short period of time."

And so on, listing mundane skills any elementary student had. Except maybe the en-dur-ance thing. Tsuna didn't fully understand why he had this, or what everything meant, but he did have it.

So Tsuna shrugged and went on to the Social tab.

The Social tab hurt.

It was divided into groups, Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and Enemies. Tsuna had no one in the Friends group. He had several people in the Enemies group.

Tsuna felt tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. He rubbed his eyes furiously and clenched his teeth. He wouldn't cry. He had something he could do now.

He decided to ignore the Social Tab for now.

The Map tab was simply a map of Namimori. It included the names of things and roads, but it had these odd symbols on them and greyed-out areas. Tsuna wasn't sure what to think about that.

But then Mama was calling him for breakfast, and he had to get dressed and go downstairs, and so he decided to think on it later.

…

After breakfast Tsuna asked if he could go out. Nana looked surprised at first, her eyes widening just a little, and asked if he wanted her to go with him. Tsuna said no, and was surprised to find that it was the truth. He actually didn't dread going outside this time, with no one to protect him. And maybe, Tsuna thought, as he looked at the big, radiant smile Mama gave him so rarely, that was a good thing.

…

Tsuna decided to explore the map first, because it was easiest. Some of the symbols on the map looked almost scary, so Tsuna decided to check out the gray areas first. There was one very near his house, in fact. Tsuna started walking towards the grey area, checking the map every couple of minutes. But he never got to the gray area. Actually, the grey area seemed to be getting smaller…

Tsuna stopped. Then, while watching the map, he began to go forward. The grey area was getting smaller. The area he was walking in turned colored as he passed it. The grey areas must be places Tsuna had not yet gone.

Tsuna continued walking down the road of almost identical walled-off houses. It seemed to just be a normal neighborhood. Was there even a point to doing this? Still, his Mama had smiled at him when he had left, so maybe he should stay out a little longer. Maybe fill in a few grey areas, even if it was hot out.

"Oof!" a thin, elderly voice said, breaking Tsuna out of his thoughts. Up ahead there was a grandmother attempting to carry a few potted flowers out of the back of a small car. Above her head was "Sato Hari Grandmother LV18". There was a yellow question mark above her head. As he got closer a screen popped up.

"Quest Alert! Help Grandmother with her Gardening! Help Sato Hari plant a flower bed. Time limit: 1 hour. Reward: Increase reputation, +25 XP, +100 yen. Fail Penalty: Decrease reputation"

Tsuna didn't really think. "Excuse me, grandmother, would you like some help?" he asked.

The elderly lady looked up at him and smiled. "Of course…" she trailed off.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, ma'am. But most people just call me Tsuna."

"Quest accepted" said the orange box.

"Tsuna-kun. Would you mind carrying these in for me?" said Sato-san, gesturing at the pink and yellow flowers in the back of her car.

"Um!" said Tsuna as he quickly grabbed the flowers. They were a little heavy, but nothing too bad. Sato-san unlocked the gate and led him inside. Out back in the garden, Tsuna could see several patches of dirt on the ground. Sato-san walked over to one, kneeled down and pulled out a small, pointed shovel. She gestured to Tsuna to kneel down next to her. Tsuna did, placing the potted plants off to the side.

Sato-san pointed at her shovel. "This is a trowel…" she began to lecture.

…

Tsuna enjoyed gardening. Sato-san, who he was beginning to call "Grandmother" even in his head, was a good teacher. Between the two of them, they finished Grandmother's flowerbed in half an hour. After that was done, Grandmother showed Tsuna how to water the flowerbed with a watering can. At the end Tsuna was smiling happily.

Grandmother patted Tsuna on the head. "You're a good kid," she said. "Here." She fished around in one of her pockets before withdrawing a 100-yen coin. "It's hot out, so buy yourself a popsicle."

"Thank you!" said Tsuna.

"Oh, if you want to help out more, I'll be working on this garden throughout the week. Feel free to stop by and help," added Grandmother.

"I will!" said Tsuna, as the "Quest Complete" sign flashed in front of him. There was another two signs as well, ones that he read as he walked to a convenience store. They said "You have learned a new skill, Gardening" and "[Gardening (Active) LV1 EXP: 23.5%] Grow useful plants and flowers. Can take care of small potted cactuses and weeds."

Tsuna thought that the word cactus seemed familiar. He'd ask his mother about it. But for now, he was going to buy a popsicle.

…

Tsuna was back in time for lunch. "I'm home," he yelled as he walked through the door.

"Oh Tsu-kun," said his mother, poking her head out of the kitchen. "Right on time, too. But do wash your hands, they're filthy."

"I was helping an elderly woman garden," Tsuna explained. "By the way, do you know what a cactus is?"

"It's a thick, prickly plant," said Mama. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, uh, she thought I could grow a small potted one," Tsuna lied.

"Ah, I heard that some are very easy to grow," said Mama as she served lunch. "Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu!" Tsuna repeated.

After lunch was done, Tsuna returned to his room. He remembered seeing another quest yesterday, something to do with his homework. After pulling out his worksheet, he hesitantly poked the "Accept" button and then settled down to work.

It was very difficult. Tsuna had always found math to be difficult, and his mind wandered. Still, he wanted to see if anything good happened due to this quest, and so he persevered.

And then it was dinnertime and bedtime and Tsuna had school tomorrow, so he said goodnight and went to sleep, wondering at the consequences of his actions.

…

"Good morning class!" said the teacher as she walked into the room. "Good morning Sensei," they replied.

"Now, I know this is the last week until summer break but I still expect you to do well and work hard," Sensei said.

Tsuna sat up straighter. He had forgotten about that. It would give much more time to figure out what this strange ability of his did. Maybe he could figure out how to undo the seal thing. But right now he had to concentrate on class.

Tsuna didn't see some of the boys smirking at the back of Tsuna's head.

…

"Get him!" someone yelled from behind.

Tsuna tried to run even faster. His lungs were burning though, and he wouldn't be able to keep this pace up for long. So Tsuna angled towards the busy pedestrian roads where the boys wouldn't dare attack him. However, he forgot to factor in how clumsy he was.

Tsuna tripped and face-planted. Hard. With a laugh, the boys caught up to him and started kicking him. Each blow felt like a hammer against Tsuna's ribs. "Dame-Tsuna!" they cried. "Here's our summer vacation present. Make sure you don't forget us!" Tsuna sobbed. This group of boys tormented him whenever one of them had felt down, which was often. As they had told him once, "If you are going to be useless, we might as well entertain ourselves with you."

"Hey kids, what's going on over there?" someone yelled.

"Oh, crap," said one of the boys as they scattered. Tsuna stayed on the ground, thankful for the brief respite and letting his new aches and pains go away. After a few minutes he felt steady enough to stand up again. As he didn't want the boys to find him, he moved away as quickly as he could. Then, Tsuna faced a dilemma.

One, Tsuna could go home immediately and be safe. But Mama was always so sad when he came home with bruises and the memory of yesterday's smile was still strong in his mind. Two, Tsuna could wander around and try to find bandages on his own, but there wasn't any guarantee that the boys wouldn't find him again or that he could find anything in the first place.

"Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna looked up and saw Grandma. That was even worse than Mama, because Mama was used to it. Grandma wasn't, and would be disappointed in, or worse, pity Tsuna and then he wouldn't be able to garden with her…

"Tsuna-kun, what happened?" Grandma asked, urgency in her voice.

"I, uh, tripped," Tsuna tried to lie. The look Grandma sent him told Tsuna that she did not believe that at all, but she thankfully didn't push. Instead, her eyes darkened and she glared at Tsuna's knee as if it was the source of all her problems.

"Grandma?" Tsuna squeaked. Grandma took a deep breath, shook herself, then smiled at Tsuna and said "Well, we'd better get you cleaned up. Would you like to come with me?"

Tsuna, uncertain of how to respond, hesitated and nodded. Getting cleaned up with help sounded nice.

Slowly, Tsuna trudged behind Grandma. It seemed like his aches and pains were fading away quicker than he thought they would, but they still hurt. They walked back to Grandma's house, where she made Tsuna sit down while she grabbed an obviously well-used and loved first-aid kit.

Tsuna hissed as she started dabbing antiseptic onto his scraps. "Do you… trip… a lot, Tsuna-kun?" Grandma asked.

Tsuna hesitated, wondering if he was revealing too much, then nodded. Grandma paused, took another deep breath, and continued working on Tsuna's knee. "Would you like it if I taught you some first aid? So that you can bandage yourself up if I can't," Grandma asked.

Tsuna would have thought that she was joking if it wasn't for a big orange pop up box in front of him.

" **Mentorship Offer** ," it read. "Acquire Sato Hari as a Mentor. Sato Hari, an Ex-nurse, can teach first aid, gardening, cooking, homemaking, sewing and cleaning. By acquiring Sato Hari as a mentor, experience in these tasks is doubled. Accept/Decline."

"Umm, sure," said Tsuna, as he poked the accept button.

"Mentor Accepted!"

And for the rest of the time Tsuna was with Grandma, she explained what she was doing and why.

…

The week went by fast for Tsuna. The boys that ambushed and chased him stayed away, clearly frightened that they had been seen. Grandma took Tsuna under her wing and began teaching him all about first aid and gardening. She mentioned that she might teach him cooking if he continued to be such a good student.

Finally summer vacation came, and Tsuna ran outside with the rest of his classmates. This summer vacation was going to be different, Tsuna was certain. This time Tsuna wasn't going to stay inside almost the whole time. This time, he was going to work on his abilities and how to break that stupid seal thing. This was going to be his best summer vacation yet.

And then Hibari Kyouya happened and all Tsuna's plans went out the window.

….

 **AN:** For the record, this is one of Tsuna's average classmate's stats:

[Name]

Classmate

LV3

HP 52

FP 30

Strength: 6

Constitution: 6

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 3

Luck: 5

In essence, Tsuna is behind, except in wisdom. He had a high wisdom score due to his sealed ability and surviving his school of hard knocks.


	2. Hibari Kyouya

**Disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a

 **AN:** This fic was partially inspired by **exocara** 's "Game of Life". It's really funny, check it out!

 **Warning:** Contains my first ever attempt at a fight scene, mentions of animal cruelty.

…...

Tsuna was frankly terrified by Hibari Kyouya.

All of the kids that lived in Namimori knew about the scary kid that could even beat up high schoolers. Tsuna hadn't seen him since he got the gamer ability, and he was glad about that. This, of course, meant that on the first day of summer vacation Tsuna would run into him beating up a couple of delinquents that had been smoking.

Tsuna had heard from Grandma that running was a good way to build up strength and endurance, so he was doing a lap around town a day. It was while he was running that he happened upon Hibari. Normally, seeing Hibari would be a good sign to hurry up, but today Tsuna was distracted by the sign over Hibari's head. It read "Hibari Kyouya Demon Prefect LV 10."

 _Wow…_ Tsuna thought. That was as high as some adults! No wonder Hibari could beat up high schoolers. Tsuna was then distracted by another pop-up. "Due to continuous observation, a new skill, [Observation] has been created. It shows the information of the target." That… sounded useful, Tsuna guessed.

"Observation?" he tried.

"Hibari Kyouya Demon Kid LV 10 HP 142 FP 50. Descended from Japanese warlords on one side and Chinese martial artists on the other, Hibari Kyouya is a fearsome warrior even at the tender age of ten. He considers it his sacred duty to protect Namimori and beat up weak "herbivores"."

Tsuna ended up using observe on Hibari. Who was looking at him after beating up delinquents. And raising a tonfa. At him.

"Hiiiiiieeeee!" Tsuna ran.

…

By the time Tsuna stopped running, he was somewhere in the warehouse district of Namimori. Uncertain as how to get back home, he opened up his map window. That was when Tsuna noticed he was right next to one of the weird symbols on the map, namely a red circle with a question mark inside. Tsuna hadn't had a chance to go search out these weird marks since he discovered them, as he had been too busy completing homework quests and helping Grandma.

Now, however, it was the summer and Tsuna had much more free time. So Tsuna decided to check it out. Tsuna looked around the area he was standing in. It was… actually kind of run down. There were rust patches on some of the walls and weeds springing up between the cracks in the concrete. Off to the side there was a door with blue, chipped paint leading into one of the nastier looking buildings. The door had originally been locked shut, but the chain and lock had fallen into disrepair a long time ago and now lay in pieces on the ground. It seemed like that was the place the symbol was referring to.

Tsuna hesitated. On one hand, he was really, really curious as to what the symbol meant. On the other hand, an old, possibly abandoned warehouse was really, really scary. Tsuna weighed his options. Well, if grey areas cleared up when he walked through them, maybe if he just took a quick peek he could find out what the red mark meant.

Glancing around, Tsuna walked to the blue door and carefully pulled it open. He flinched at the squeaking noises it made. Tsuna waited a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the dusty gloom of the corridor he was in. Then he started cautiously walking forward. At the end of the corridor was a door that seemingly led to the warehouse proper. It looking like it used to be an office door, with a window and everything, but the window had been broken for a long time and it was very dirty.

Tsuna wasn't quite tall enough to see through the window, even on his tippy-toes, so he carefully pried the door open a hair and peeked through the crack. The door seemed to squeak and Tsuna froze, but he quickly realized that it wasn't the door squeaking. It sounded like mice. And then one of the "mice" rounded a corner and Tsuna saw it.

The thing was massive. It had to be at least half Tsuna's height, and weighed probably as much as he did, if not more. Above the "mouse's" head was the display: "Mutant Rat LV 6."

Just as Tsuna was about to start freaking out, an unnatural calm fell upon his mind and Tsuna began to think completely logically. In the core of his mind, Tsuna knew that he had no chance of winning against the rat. Ignoring the huge gap between their levels, Tsuna had no idea how to fight. At the same time, who knew how much damage these giant rats could do? Tsuna couldn't just ignore this. What if they hurt his mom? Or Grandma, who lived nearby?

So Tsuna had to find someone capable of fighting these things. He didn't think an adult would listen to him, but… there was Hibari. Hibari who loved fighting. And Tsuna was pretty sure that rats ate plants.

Tsuna crept back down the corridor. He needed to find Hibari. A part of his mind remarked that a few minutes ago, Tsuna had thought that there was nothing that would make Tsuna actually want to find Hibari.

…

Luckily, it did not take long to find Hibari. When Hibari saw Tsuna, his eyes narrowed even more than they were naturally. "Herbivore," he said, raising his tonfas. "Hibari-san," Tsuna gasped. "There are rats, you've got to see…"

"Herbivore, are you _ordering me?_ " Hibari asked.

In retrospect, Tsuna should have seen this coming. Hibari was notoriously independent. Well, if he wouldn't come one way, Tsuna would get him there another way. So Tsuna did what many would consider to be a suicidal thing to do. And stuck his tongue out at Hibari Kyouya.

" _Herbivore!_ "

Tsuna thanked his lucky stars that he had leveled up his sprint yesterday.

…

Tsuna smashed through the blue door and ran down the hallway, Hibari hot on his heels. Almost there… Tsuna hit the office door with everything he had and fell on the ground hard when it busted open. The squeal of the door and the crash of Tsuna's fall echoed loudly throughout the warehouse and the giant mutant rats came running. Hibari skidded to a halt behind Tsuna, eyes widening a miniscule amount. Tsuna couldn't help but grin at him. "See?" he said. "Rats."

"Herbivores," Hibari replied, smirking. Then he leapt into battle.

Tsuna stared. He had heard stories of Hibari's ability in battle, but the few times he had been present for a battle, Tsuna had had his hands over his head trying to avoid getting hit. Now that he wasn't one of the targets, Tsuna was free to stare. It was honestly hard to look away, in the mixture of the way one couldn't look away from an expert dancer and the way one couldn't look away from a car crash. Hibari was graceful as he whirled around, and the sickening crunch that occurred when he landed a hit was a testimony to his strength.

That was when Tsuna remembered he had recently gained a new skill.

Tsuna tried to [Observe] the rats. "Mutant Rat LV6 HP 50," the pop-up read. "These rats fed upon and were mutated by the chemicals left in this abandoned warehouse. The mutations also made them abnormally aggressive." Not that it mattered, Hibari was absolutely decimating them. A part of Tsuna noted that he could see health bars for each of the rats.

Then the Rat King showed up. It was massive, twice Tsuna's height and as big as a car. Tsuna used [Observe] on it. The pop-up read "The Rat King LV 22 HP 300. This massive rat killed and ate its own kind to survive. Now it's the biggest and the nastiest of them all."

"Finally, a _challenge_ ," Hibari said as he faced the Rat King. The Rat King screamed in response, then lashed out.

In the beginning it looked to be in Hibari's favor. Hibari was small, fast and deadly with his tonfas. The Rat King was large and cumbersome. But once its health bar went down half way, the Rat King started using its tail.

Hibari had a tonfa raised to crush one of the Rat King's legs when its tail suddenly smashed into Hibari's midsection. Hibari flew into one of the walls and crumpled. Tsuna's heart leapt into his chest. This was _Hibari, the Demon Prefect_. The Hibari Kyouya that could not be beaten. Until now. And Tsuna was the one who was responsible.

And then the Rat King was standing over Hibari, one clawed hand extended, and Tsuna had to do _something,_ because this was all his fault and something in the back of Tsuna's mind just _shattered_.

And then everything was orange. "Dying Will Mode entered," said a pop-up, but Tsuna ignored it. It wasn't important. He had to protect Hibari, and fix everything he let go so horribly wrong. And to do that, the Rat King had to go down.

Tsuna ran forward, and smashed into the Rat King's midsection just as it was posed to strike at Hibari. The Rat King squealed as it was propelled sideways, away from Hibari. Tsuna reared up and started punching the Rat King's nose. He vaguely noticed that his hands were on fire.

The Rat King tried to use its tail again, but Tsuna anticipated him. He grabbed the tail and yanked it forward. There was a crack and the Rat King squealed loudly. Tsuna could see that its hit points were almost gone. He drew back, and putting all his weight into it, punched the Rat King one last time. The Rat King disintegrated into dust.

Tsuna ran to see how Hibari was, ignoring the sign that told him he had leveled up. Hibari was trying to sit up, but Tsuna could tell that Hibari was badly injured. What could he do, what could he do… Something glittered where the Rat King had died. Tsuna looked. There was a needle filled with a mysterious liquid and a stack of cash. Tsuna used [Observe] on the needle. "Basic Medi-Heal – One of the leftover chemicals meant for healing. Restores 75 HP." That would work.

Tsuna ran over to the needle and picked it up. He had seen nurses at the doctor's office give shots, so he thought he could do it.

"Herbivore?" Hibari asked.

"Just keep still," Tsuna told him, prying what looked like a cap off of the end of the needle. He aimed, and stabbed Hibari in the upper arm, injecting him with a golden-amber liquid.

Hibari sat bolt upright, rejuvenated, although Tsuna could still see cuts and bruises on him. He would be fine.

All of a sudden, the orange glow disappeared and Tsuna very nearly collapsed. It felt as though he had been full of helium that had suddenly turned into lead.

"Herbivore?" Hibari asked again, clearly confused. Tsuna smiled weakly at him. "We should get to a hospital," Tsuna told him.

"Hibaris don't go to hospitals," Hibari said, hostile again. He tried to stand up, but stumbled and ended up leaning on the wall for support. Tsuna's worry returned. "I know of an ex-nurse nearby," Tsuna said. "We can go to her."

"Hn." Tsuna supposed that was as close to an agreement as he would get.

Tsuna gathered his strength, and pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled, but was able to steady himself. He offered an arm to Hibari. Hibari tried to smack the hand away but failed and almost collapsed into Tsuna. Tsuna was barely able to keep them on their feet. He pulled Hibari's arm over his shoulder and together they staggered out of the warehouse.

Tsuna silently pulled up the map and checked the route to Grandma's house. _Please, let her be home_ , he prayed.

It was hard going at first, but Tsuna and Hibari slowly regained their strength. By the time they were at Grandma's house Hibari was barely leaning on Tsuna at all.

Tsuna knocked at Grandma's door. "Tsuna-kun?!" she exclaimed as she opened the door. Tsuna gave her a weak smile, before his knees buckled and he nearly collapsed from relief. Grandma opened the door further and beckoned them in. "What did you do?" she questioned. "Fall from a roof?"

Tsuna paused. He wasn't sure if she'd believe the truth. "Err… got attacked by a dog?" he responded.

"Both of you?"

When he didn't reply, Grandma sighed but smiled at both of them and motioned for them to sit down while she got out her medical kit. Hibari seemed to be the worse off, so she treated him first. When Grandma go to Tsuna, she seemed sad.

"Grandma?" Tsuna asked.

"Hm?"

"Why do you seem sad?" At the question, Grandma gave him a quick, fleeting glance. She paused. "This just reminds me…" she said "…of something that happened a long time ago." Grandma gave him a brighter smile then and ruffled his hair. "But you don't need to worry about me," she continued. "Worry about yourself first."

Tsuna nodded. By then Hibari seemed well enough to get home by himself, although he was to rest for the next few days. Grandma told Tsuna the same thing when she was done with him. Tsuna smiled at her and thanked her.

She chuckled. "Just keep visiting me, and not just to patch you up," she told him.

…

Tsuna laid back in bed, guilt coiling in his stomach. _Hibari nearly died today_ … he thought… _and it was my fault_. Tsuna had gotten Hibari involved because he wasn't strong enough to deal with the rats himself. They managed to eradicate the rats this time, but there were many symbols on his map and there was no guarantee what would happen next time. He needed to get stronger.

That reminded Tsuna. He had leveled up today, hadn't he. "Status," Tsuna said. Immediately the orange pop-up appeared. Tsuna noticed that the tabs for Passive Effects, Abilities and Map were flashing. He'd check those out later. For now, he focused on his Status.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV 4

HP 48

FP 45

Strength 5

Constitution 5

Agility 3

Intelligence 4

Wisdom 10

Luck 3

Points: 5"

It seemed that Tsuna's Wisdom and MP had gone up without him doing anything, but otherwise he had 5 points to decide where to put. It didn't seem like he could put them in luck though, and Tsuna could tell he had gotten hurt from the run with Hibari.

Tsuna hesitated. His first thought was that he needed to get stronger, but he could easily trip and fall with his agility the way it was right now. Plus, he still remembered Hibari's grace in the beginning of the fight. So Tsuna put two points into strength and two into agility. He put his last point into intelligence, which would hopefully prevent him from making such a stupid mistake again. In the end, his status read

"Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV 4

HP 48

FP 50

Strength 7

Constitution 5

Agility 5

Intelligence 5

Wisdom 10

Luck 3"

That being decided, Tsuna pushed the status tab. Immediately he could see what was different.

"Vongola Direct Lineage Heir: PARTIALLY SEALED. +2 wisdom per LV. +20 FP per LV.

Cracked IX's Seal: -25% all abilities. -25% all experience gain."

Tsuna gave a humorless chuckle at that. Of course it would take nearly killing someone to crack the seal. What else would it be, something nice and not harmful?

He continued reading.

"Sky: PARTIALLY SEALED. +5 rep. + 10 rep with Mafia members. Able to "harmonize" with certain people who then become "Guardians" and gain bonuses by fighting at your side. Dying will mode and Sky Flames partially enabled."

Wait, the MAFIA? What did they have to do with anything? Tsuna turned it over a few times in his mind before, realizing that he couldn't figure out anything with what he knew right now.

Either way, it seemed like that was the extent of the changes Tsuna could find in his Passive Effects. He moved on to Abilities.

The only difference Tsuna could find there was that he now had [Dying Will] and [Observation] listed as abilities. The [Dying Will] ability read as "Dying Will Mode: LV1. Complete your tasks with your Dying Will! Cost: 5 MP per sec. PARTIALLY BLOCKED." Tsuna had no idea what would happen if he ran out of MP. Hopefully nothing bad.

Finally, Tsuna clicked on Map. It seemed to mostly be the same except… the red question mark above the abandoned warehouse had changed to a rat's head and there was now a red plus sign above Grandma's house. Huh? What did that mean? Tsuna peered closer. The pop-up box moved away, so Tsuna reached out to pull it closer and his thumb brushed the plus sign.

"Sato Hari's House," another pop-up said. "Free medical care available here."

Tsuna blinked. So if he poked the symbols on the map, it would show him what was there? He poked the other red plus sign. The resulting pop-up read, "Namimori Hospital. Healthcare available here."

So, red plus signs meant that you could get healed there. Then what did some of the other symbols mean. There were a lot of greyed out question marks on the map, a few of the red symbols like what used to be above the abandoned warehouse and a couple of odd symbols. One of them was a flower sign, which was right next to an apple and another was a black knife shape. Tsuna shivered at that one. He poked the flower symbol. "Hana's Flower Shop! Buy all kinds of plants here!"

Tsuna remembered that place. Mama had taken him there a few times, buying things for her garden. If the flower sign was the Hana's, did that make the apple the food market? He poked it. "Namimori Food Market! Buy delicious foods and ingredients!" Yep, it was the food mart. Tsuna wasn't certain he wanted to know what the knife thing meant.

He poked one of the grey question marks. "PLACE LOCKED," it said. "AREA UNEXPLORED." Wait, but he hadn't explored the warehouse either. Was it something to do with fact that the question mark had been red? Tsuna tapped one of the red question marks.

"MINI DUNGEON LOCKED. AREA UNEXPLORED."

Tsuna's eyes widened. Since he had gotten the gamer ability, he had had the foresight to research games at least a little, and so he knew what dungeons were. He also knew that most dungeon monsters didn't leave their dungeons. Did that mean that he got Hibari injured for nothing?

Tsuna hesitated, and then tapped the rat head with a trembling hand. "The Abandoned Warehouse Mini-Dungeon. Contains Mutant Rats. Currently cleared out. Will reform in 67 hours, 38 minutes, 23 secs."

Tsuna covered his eyes and wept.

…

When Tsuna stopped crying, it was starting to get dark out. Tsuna rubbed his red, puffy eyes. He still felt incredibly guilty over what had happened to Hibari. He could also still remember the yakuza he had seen going to school that one day.

The fact that the rats were in a dungeon meant nothing. There were still many other dangers in the world and Tsuna still needed to get stronger. How, he wasn't sure yet.

Still, he had learned his lesson. Always check what's on the map first.

With that in mind, he poked the black blade symbol. "Namimori Black Market! Rather small, but weapons, ammo and other illegal merchandise can be bought here." Tsuna swallowed. He was scared, but he needed to get stronger, and this seemed like this place was his best bet to start.

…

Tsuna didn't think Mama would let him go out at this time of night. But getting the gamer ability had taught Tsuna that one never knew what would happen next, and Tsuna needed to protect Mama too.

There was a tree outside Tsuna's window, with a branch right next to Tsuna's windowsill. Before, Tsuna would have never considered climbing the tree, if only because he was so clumsy. Now, however, Tsuna was much more agile and he had something to protect. So Tsuna grabbed a flashlight and prepared to climb out the window. He couldn't exactly climb down with a flashlight in his hands though, and he didn't want to go downstairs to retrieve his backpack.

Wait, he had an inventory! Tsuna opened the inventory tab. It had a picture of what clothes he was wearing, something that said how much money he had, and then bunch of dark squares. Were the dark squares places to put things? Tsuna tried to place the flashlight in one of the squares. The flashlight disappeared from his hand and appeared in one of the dark squares. Tsuna grinned. That worked.

Tsuna slowly opened his window, mindful of any squeaks that would tell Mama what he was doing. At least the branch outside seemed sturdy.

Tsuna jumped for the branch and caught it with his midsection. He let out an oof and scrambled onto it. From there, he slipped down to one slightly below him, missed, and fell out of the tree.

"Physical Endurance leveled up!" said a pop-up box. "Ow," said Tsuna. He climbed to his feet a bit unsteadily. Well, time to get going. Tsuna slipped out the gate as quietly as he could.

…

Tsuna grew increasingly nervous as he neared the black market. What was he thinking coming here? The people were probably yakuza or worse. He leaned against a wall and tried to calm himself down. Tsuna could easily imagine all the nasty things Mama had said these people could probably do to him. Who knew what little kids were worth these days...

Tsuna shook his head. He wouldn't think about it. At the same time, he couldn't forget how Hibari looked midair, right before crashing into the wall. Tsuna could still hear the horrible squeaking of the rats. Squeak, squeak, squeak…. Wait, he wasn't just remembering. He was actually hearing squeaking.

Tsuna peaked around the corner into an alleyway. A group of older kids, all labeled either delinquents or psychos by the text over their heads, had a rat in their hands and were playing with it. Not the nice kind of games either; the rat was surrounded by flames and was squeaking madly. The kids were laughing.

One of the kids noticed him. "Hey look," he shouted. "A midget!" Tsuna was terrified, but he had a feeling that if he ran away the kids would chase him. Plus these kids obvious knew how to deal with rats, and they might know how to deal with nastier things. So Tsuna summoned his courage and walked forward.

The one who was labeled as the leader looked surprised. "Well, well," he said. "Midget's got guts." His cronies laughed. Tsuna fought the urge to blush, and instead looked at the struggling rat.

"Admiring?" said a voice right next to Tsuna's ear. Tsuna squeaked and jumped. "Cute little thing, aren't you?" said one of the kids in a mocking tone. Tsuna tried to ignore the tone and instead asked "Do they not like fire?"

At the raised eyebrows, Tsuna ducked his head and gestured at the rat. "Yeah," said the leader. "Why ya asken'?"

"I had to deal with a pest problem earlier today. Only they were much, much bigger." Tsuna was trying very hard to hide the tremble in his voice. Something told him that acting scared was the worst thing he could do right now.

"Then of course they hate fire. Chuck at Molotov at one of the big ones and watch 'em squirm."

"A Molotov?" Tsuna asked carefully.

"Yeah, like a fire in a bottle." The leader had a sick grin on his face now. "Throw one and boom! Flames everywhere."

That could be useful. Tsuna vaguely remembered fire coming from his hands during the fight with the Rat King. It would probably work against anything else that tried to harm him.

"Could you teach me how to make one?" Tsuna asked, quietly. His hands balled the edge of his shirt into his fists.

"What's that?" said the leader. He cupped a hand to his ear.

"I said, can you teach how to make one?" Tsuna asked, looking up into the eyes of the leader.

The leader looked surprised. "Oho," he said. "Guts indeed." An orange question mark flashed over his head.

He squatted down. "Tell you what, kid. I'm feeling good tonight, so if you can bring me a bit of cash, I might part with some of my secrets. Whadda ya say?"

The pop-up box read " **Quest Alert!** Goodness Gracious Great Bottles of Fire. Acquire 1,000 yen for the group of delinquents. Time Limit: 1 hour. Rewards: [Basic Molotov Cocktail] recipe. Increase reputation with delinquents +100 XP. Fail Penalty: Decrease reputation with delinquents. Chance to get beat up."

"Okay," said Tsuna, as he tried to keep his voice steady. The leader flashed him a grin. "Try not to take too long," he said.

Tsuna ran out of the alley, relieved to get away unharmed. He didn't stop running until he was at least a few blocks away. Those boys scared him.

As for the quest , Tsuna remembered seeing some money in the rat dungeon. He had ignored it because he was more worried about Hibari. Hopefully, it was still there and he just needed to pick it up.

…

It was. In fact, the money sign in his inventory said that Tsuna now had 2,040 yen, more than enough. The warehouse still gave Tsuna the creeps, even more so in the dark. He was glad to get out of it.

The delinquents were surprised when he showed back up. Tsuna suspected that they thought Tsuna would just run for it and not return. The leader raised an eyebrow.

"So, midget came back, did he? You got the money, kid?" he asked.

Tsuna swallowed as he pulled out 1,000 yen from one of his pockets. The leader took it and thumbed through, counting the money. He smirked. "Nice. Looks like you came through this time kid. Don't worry, I won't tell. I don't think you want people knowing how you got this money."

Tsuna's heart seemed to stop. Did they know about the gamer thing?

"Took it from his mummy's purse, didn't he," called one of the delinquents. The leader laughed. Tsuna relaxed. No, they didn't know.

"Well, then," said the leader, pulling out some materials. "Here is how to make a Molotov Cocktail."

…

Tsuna thought it lucky that he could get most, if not all, of the ingredients at home. After all, Mama had a cabinet full of the bottles he needed for when his dad came home. And since Dad never came home, she wouldn't notice if several of those bottles went missing. There was a lighter in the kitchen too.

"Then, you throw it and bam! Fire. Everywhere," the leader finished.

Tsuna nodded, eyes wide. The delinquents laughed at his expression. "I think that sums it up, midget. Anything else?"

Tsuna was about to say no, when a particularly loud squeak stopped him. He looked to the side. There was the rat he had seen earlier. It was now being held by its tail about a meter above the ground. It also seemed to be in pain.

Tsuna hesitated. On one hand, these boys scared him and he did not like rats, especially after today. On the other hand, he felt bad for the rat. It wasn't the rats fault, and it seemed in so much pain…

Sometimes Tsuna hated his conscience.

"What about the rat?" Tsuna asked quietly.

"Eh, the rat?" said the leader. "I guess it doesn't really matter. I might just kill it, now that I have enough money for something better. Why?"

"I, er, can I have it?"

The group laughed. "For all your cute looks, you're really a psycho in the making, aren't you? Sure, go ahead." The kid with the rat tossed it to Tsuna, who barely caught it and the boys left, shoving and jostling each other.

Tsuna let out a shaky breath. For once he could understand Hibari's dislike of crowds; some people were scary in a group.

Tsuna set the madly wiggling rat on the ground and watched it take off. He wasn't sure why, but freeing the rat gave him a feeling of having done some good. It was a nice feeling.

" **You have performed a good deed!** At risk to yourself and expecting no reward, you have performed a good deed. You have gained positive Karma and one point of Luck. Continue treating the Group [Rats] with kindness and you will become their ally!" said a pop-up.

And then there was that. Tsuna had no idea what he felt about that.

…

By the time Tsuna got home, it was definitely night time. He had debated whether or not to apologize to Hibari, but Grandma had told Hibari to rest, so Tsuna wouldn't wake him up and would instead apologize tomorrow. He made a note to himself to ask Mama to help him make an apology gift for Hibari.

But first he had to get up this tree.

Tsuna jumped up, managed to grab ahold of a branch, and promptly fell off. Hard. On his butt.

"You fell down. -5 HP"

Tsuna rubbed his tailbone, glaring at the offending branch. He had stuck his tongue at Hibari, faced down a giant mutant rat, and dealt with a group of delinquents today. He was not going to lose to a tree.

Tsuna jumped up again and managed to clamor onto the branch. Which meant that he fell off when he tried to climb onto the next branch.

Tsuna sighed. It was going to be a long night.

…

Tsuna fell out of the tree three more times before he was able to get climb into his bedroom via the open window. In the process he had gained a point to his constitution, whatever that was, which caused him to gain 5 HP. He also gained a point of strength and leveled up his physical endurance.

Setting aside that Tsuna could apparently gain points just by doing things, not just leveling up, Tsuna also looked at his new [Manufacturing] skill, and the pop-up for a Molotov Cocktail.

" **Molotov Cocktail** ," it read. "Is set on fire and thrown to create an AOE attack. Blast radius of 1 meter and causes -5 HP damage per sec. Burns out after 30 secs."

If Tsuna was right, that meant that if he set the Rat King on fire he would die after only 1 minute… if he stayed on fire. Tsuna had no idea if he would.

Still, it would definitely hurt whoever would want to harm Mama or Tsuna, so in Tsuna's mind it worked.

With the thought that he was getting stronger, Tsuna went to bed.

That night, he dreamt of a man with a checker-patterned face and an iron hat who sat on a throne and said nothing as he watched Tsuna.

…

Tsuna woke up the next morning feeling both dread and guilt. The guilt was obviously because of what happened to Hibari. The dread because now he was going to do the right thing and apologize to Hibari the Demon. Who would most likely beat him up as soon as he saw Tsuna.

Tsuna gulped.

Still, the guilt was stronger and so Tsuna asked his mom to help him make a get-well-soon basket for Hibari, which would double as an apology gift. After that, all he had to do was ask for directions to Hibari's house and he was off.

Tsuna walked slowly, head down. The night had not dimmed his memories of the day before, and Tsuna could still see Hibari's body, almost in slow motion, flung into the wall like a limp rag doll. Tsuna would not be surprised if Hibari blamed him for what happened. After all, Tsuna blamed himself. Who else could he? If he hadn't been so stupid and thought it through like the teachers at school constantly told him, this would have never happened.

Tsuna sighed. He was almost there. Then he looked up.

Wait, he thought that Hibari lived in a house. This was a freakin' _mansion_. Tsuna gawked and looked for the nameplate. Yep, this was Hibari's house.

Tsuna swallowed and rang the doorbell. It took a few moments, but Hibari opened the door.

Tsuna was momentarily surprised. Didn't Hibari's parents answer the door? Or, considering the state of things, a servant? And yet it was Hibari that answered, with his tonfas at his side.

"Herbivore," said Hibari, breaking Tsuna out of his mental dialogue. "H-here," Tsuna stammered, holding out the basket toward Hibari and looking down. "For yesterday."

Hibari looked at the basket but did not say anything.

Tsuna closed his eyes and stammered out, "I-I'm sorry. For yesterday. It was my fault. What happened. It was all my fault."

Tsuna hunched over, terrified and guilty. When Hibari still didn't reach out for the basket, Tsuna looked up at Hibari. Hibari was looking at Tsuna, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Herbivore, what do you mean it was your fault?" Hibari asked.

"W-well, I didn't know it was a dungeon, I mean I didn't check, and then I led you there, and, and, and I'm so so sorry!" Tsuna exclaimed. Then, realizing what he had said, he flinched and looked away.

As he made a movement to leave, however, Hibari said "Come in."

Tsuna glanced up at Hibari. He seemed impatient, and yanked the basket out of Tsuna's hands. Then, with a touch of irritation in his posture, gestured for Tsuna to come inside.

Tsuna swallowed and followed.

Hibari's house was very traditional, Tsuna noticed as he took off his shoes. Even so, it seemed almost cold. It didn't really feel like a home, just a house. Still, Tsuna was more concerned with his upcoming death at Hibari's hands than what his house was like.

Tsuna followed Hibari to what looked like a room for receiving guests. Hibari pointed at a mat. "Sit," he ordered. After Tsuna had sat down, Hibari sat on a mat across from him. "Explain," he said. "Clearly."

So Tsuna did. Tsuna explained from the start, from the day he had woken up with orange pop-ups everywhere and names and LVs. He explained about his status and his inventory and the seal that had made his life horrible. And if he had wondered why he was baring everything to a complete stranger, Tsuna wouldn't have been able to really explain, only that he felt like he could trust Hibari.

"…and so I came here, because if I hadn't been so stupid you wouldn't have gotten hurt and _it's all my fault!_ " Tsuna wailed. Then he fell silent, head tilted downwards and tears prickling at the corners of his eyes.

Hibari was silent.

"Herbivore," he finally said. "It was not your fault."

Tsuna looked up at him incredulously. "Yes it was!" he argued. "If I hadn't been so stup-ack!"

He was forcefully silenced by a tonfa to the head.

" _Be quiet, herbivore_ ," Hibari hissed. "Listen. I am a carnivore. Carnivores are responsible for themselves in battle. Not herbivores. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"But!"

" _Not. Your. Fault_."

Tsuna sniffled, and then gave Hibari the biggest, brightest smile he could. It felt as though Tsuna had been carrying around some great burden that was suddenly released. It wasn't his fault.

Hibari looked nonplussed. Tsuna didn't think that Hibari got smiled at that often.

Hibari gave a light cough, as though clearing his throat. "So," he said. "According to you, the rats will respawn after about 3 days from yesterday." Tsuna nodded. Hibari gave him a feral smile that sent shivers up Tsuna's spine.

"Then, herbivore, be at the front door at eight in two days."

"E-eh? Hibari-san? Are you sure-"

Hibari swung a tonfa at Tsuna. Tsuna ended up flat on his back. "Yes," Hibari said. "Now leave." And he turned away in clear dismissal.

Tsuna left Hibari's house wondering just what he had done.

…

Tsuna had spent the days he had been given by Hibari preparing. It was depressingly easy to sneak the necessary materials for Molotov Cocktails out from under Mama's nose, and what he couldn't find in the house he could generally find in the garbage, although Tsuna didn't like doing that.

He had also used the remainder of his money on bandages and a cheap rolling pin. Hopefully the rolling pin was sturdy enough to survive a few good hits, as the only baseball bats he could find in his price range were hollow plastic.

All that being done, Tsuna hoped that Hibari would agree to his plan. He knew that saying Hibari was fiercely independent was a massive understatement, but he hoped that Hibari wouldn't mind too much if Tsuna used the Molotovs to funnel the rats.

Still, as he packed everything in his inventory the night before, he hoped everything would be fine tomorrow.

…

Tsuna ended up waking up late.

He shrieked as he saw the time and hurried to get his clothes on. This, of course, meant that everything took twice as long as normal and Tsuna barely had time for a slice of bread before running out the door to meet Hibari. Tsuna just counted himself lucky that his increased agility score meant that he didn't trip over his own feet coming down the stairs.

As he ran for Hibari's house, Tsuna counseled himself with the thought that, even if he died young, his Mama would be well taken care of. His father was a No-Good Dad who was constantly missing, but he still sent home hefty checks.

"Herbivore," said Hibari as Tsuna ran up to his house. "You're almost late."

"P-please forgive me," said Tsuna, bowing.

Hibari stared at him for a moment. Then he said, "Invite me to be in a party."

Tsuna looked up at him, startled. "What do you mean," he asked, "Invite you to a party?"

Hibari clicked his tongue in annoyance. "In certain games, a player can invite another person to be in a party with them so that they can quest together," he lectured.

"Wow, Hibari-san, how did you know…" Tsuna started to ask.

Hibari raised a tonfa.

Tsuna immediately closed his mouth. Then he tried "Invite Hibari-san to a party."

"You must first create a party before adding members," said a prompt pop-up.

Acutely aware of Hibari's growing impatience, Tsuna quickly said "Create party." When prompted to name the party he said "Party", and quickly confirmed it.

This time, when Tsuna said "Invite Hibari-san to Party," he could see a purple pop-up window in front of Hibari. Hibari raised an eyebrow, but otherwise seemed unaffected by the strangeness of the situation.

Tsuna watched as Hibari hit "Yes" on the pop-up. He could see how the other's eyes widened as he took in the game world.

"Status," Hibari demanded. Then he whispered "Wao," at the resulting window. His mouth slowly widened into a smirk. Tsuna could tell that Hibari was definitely pleased by all the new options this ability gave him. Since he was pleased, maybe this would be a good time to suggest his plan.

"A-ano, Hibari-san?" Tsuna asked meekly. The resulting scowl sent his way almost made him backtrack, but Tsuna swallowed and continued. "I made some Molotov Cocktails, you know, for the fight. I thought we could use them to, like, kill off the small ones before they get too close?" Tsuna smiled hesitantly.

Hibari stared at him a moment, then said, "Just don't get in my way, herbivore."

Tsuna sighed in relief, and then promptly straightened up as Hibari started striding forward. He blinked a few times than quickly ran to catch up. _Wow, he walks fast,_ Tsuna thought, as he found himself having to speed up to a light jog in order to stay next to Hibari. At their current pace, it only took a few minutes for them to get to the warehouse.

Hibari didn't even pause to look at the warehouse; he just strode right in and busted open the office door with a tonfa.

Immediately he was attacked by rats.

Tsuna was right at his heels. As Hibari diverted the attentions of the various rats, Tsuna took out a Molotov, lit it with trembling hands, and then threw it to one side where the rats were coming from. He repeated the process on the other side, forcing all the sane rats to come at Hibari head-on and hurting the crazier rats before they even reached Hibari.

Once that was done, Tsuna pulled out his rolling pin and started trying to hit some of the rats attacking Hibari. Of course, since the pin was a piece of cheap plastic it broke after a few hits and Tsuna had to result to punching the various rats. One even turned its attentions to Tsuna, but Tsuna was able to kick it into one of the Molotov fires.

The fires winked out just as the Rat King showed up. "He's mine," growled Hibari. Tsuna nodded and backed away. It seemed like Hibari's fight anyways.

This time Hibari did not fall for the tail. Instead he smashed the tail with a tonfa and continued with the brutal beat-down. The rat died quickly.

Hibari stepped back as the remains of the rat dissolved. He clearly saw the rewards but dismissed them.

"A-ah, Hibari-san," stuttered Tsuna. "Don't you want the items?"

"I have no need for them," said Hibari dismissively.

Tsuna looked at Hibari as Hibari pulled up his Status window. During the fight, Hibari had leveled up, and now appeared to be considering where to put his points. _He seemed to really enjoy that fight_ , Tsuna thought as he picked up the items. This time, along with the healing needle and the stack of cash, there was also a "Rat's Skull" which was listed as a crafting item. Tsuna looked around. There were also a few rat's teeth left behind, scattered here and there, that were also listed as crafting items. Tsuna shrugged and picked them up. It looked like his inventory space was infinite anyways.

Tsuna looked up as Hibari closed the stat window. He seemed happy. Tsuna wasn't sure why, but he was glad that Hibari seemed happy. If fighting monsters made him happy, then maybe…

"Hey, Hibari-san," Tsuna said. "You know, there are other dungeons, if you want to check them out."

Hibari's grin was both terrifying and exhilarating.

…

It turns out that Tsuna and Hibari could only get into two other dungeons. All the others required more than one person or had to be unlocked by something. Hibari scowled at the pop-ups informing them of this and Tsuna quickly suggested that they look for others.

Of the two they could get into, one was a haunted house. The ghosts were insubstantial most of the time, until they jumped out of the walls at you. Tsuna thought that Hibari destroyed more walls than ghosts. He also was ridiculously glad that this gamer thing kept him calm in dungeons. Hibari would probably beat Tsuna up if he shrieked like he normally did. The ghosts did leave these cool headbands behind that made people less noticeable. Even Hibari was interested in one after Tsuna explained what they did. Tsuna suspected Hibari was just interested in sneaking up on people and freaking them out.

The less said about the second dungeon, the better. Tsuna would forever be terrified of giant cockroaches. He wasn't interested in the meat either.

Once Tsuna and Hibari had gone through the entire town, checking every dungeon, it was mid-afternoon. Tsuna hoped that Mama wouldn't mind him missing lunch.

"Sawada-san," said Hibari.

"Y-yes?" asked Tsuna.

"All of these dungeons respawn after three days?" asked Hibari.

"Y-yes," said Tsuna.

Hibari nodded once, to himself. Then he addressed Tsuna. "Herbivore. You will come to my house every three days. On Sundays, we will spar."

"HIEEE?" Tsuna was startled. Him? Spar with _Hibari_?

"Don't make me repeat myself," Hibari said.

"Y-yes, Hibari-san," said Tsuna, resigned. He'd never understand Hibari.

Hibari smirked and walked off, breaking up the party. Tsuna was distracted by a pop-up.

"Hibari Kyouya is now a Friend."

"HIIIIEEEE!?"

Tsuna wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. One thing was certain however. He had never pictured his life getting this strange.

Then Sasagawa Ryohei happened and Tsuna's life got even stranger.

…

 **AN: This is not slash.** It is just the beginnings of harmonization. The only relationships shown will be canon. Sorry!

Also, I apologize if any characters seem OOC. I tried to make them realistic while making allowances for age, the gamer ability and experience.

About skill level: in general, an adult will have a level between 10-20 for a basic skill all have, 20-30 if the human's hobby involves that skill, 30-40 if their job involves that skill, and 40-50 if they are considered an expert. So, for example, for the sing ability, the average adult is level 10-20, a person that regularly goes karaoke singing or is in an amateur choir would be level 20-30, a singer in a professional band would be level 30-40, and multiple platinum record singers would be level 40-50. For skills that aren't basic skills, like computer programming, simply take down 10 levels from the above scale. That isn't to say that level 40 or 50 is LVMAX. The only time there is a LVMAX is when it's a question of can you do it or can't you. Like can you speak fluent English or can't you. It's just that going beyond level 50 in any skill requires so much time, effort and natural skill that only a few per generation are capable of it. Like the Arcobaleno.

Also, luck is wonky. It depends on a mixture of Karma, willpower, family circumstances, and environment. Tsuna's luck is partially bad because he was sealed and partially bad because he has Primo's blood and yet is not in the mafia.

Is Hibari a gaming fan? I leave that up to your imagination. He certainly isn't going to confess. Also, I had to cut this chapter in half, it was taking so long.

Tsuna's Stats:

Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV 4

HP 53

FP 50

Strength 8

Constitution 6

Agility 5

Intelligence 5

Wisdom 10

Luck 4


	3. Sasagawa Ryohei

**Disclaimer** : Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to SangyoungSeong and Sang-a.

 **Warnings:** Violence and fake parental verbal abuse. Kinda Iemitsu-bashing, via a kid that has no idea what's happening.

…...

Tsuna thought that Sasagawa Ryohei was very extreme. There wasn't really many other ways to accurately describe him.

He hadn't had a chance to check Sasagawa's LV, as Sasagawa always ran past him so fast that his display was a blur. Tsuna only knew that it was Sasagawa because everyone knew of his obsession with boxing. And his habit of yelling extreme.

Of course, because Tsuna's life is messed up beyond all repair, the first time Tsuna actually _meets_ meets Sasagawa Ryohei Tsuna is too exhausted to check his LV.

Tsuna had just finished his first "spar" with Hibari. It wasn't really a spar but a brutal beatdown. Tsuna had actually gained six levels to Physical Endurance in a third as many hours. He had also realized just how helpful it was to have food restore your HP. Tsuna had a mild suspicion that the snack box his Mama had made was the sole reason he wasn't dead right now. He really needed to learn how to cook.

That wasn't to say that it wasn't fruitful. Hibari had played around with exactly how many HP he could make people lose with one strike to certain areas and with varying strengths. At least, that's what Tsuna thought he was doing. Tsuna himself had gained a LV and a skill, [Basic Dodge]. He had laughed hysterically when he saw that. Hibari had hit him harder.

As a result, Tsuna was in an exhausted haze as he trudged back home that Sunday. It felt like his body was one big, throbbing bruise, and Tsuna figured he'd probably spend almost all day tomorrow in bed, aside from helping Grandma.

Hibari was insane. Tsuna had half-thought the whole thing "spar" thing some kind of weird joke until Hibari started swinging at him. When Tsuna had gotten enough of his breath back he'd asked Hibari why. Hibari had replied that he didn't want to be held back by Tsuna's herbivorous tendencies so he was training Tsuna to be a carnivore. Tsuna had gawked at Hibari for all of two seconds before Hibari had buried a tonfa in Tsuna's face.

"Training? As if," Tsuna mumbled under his breath. "He just wanted to beat me up…"

"That sounds EXTREME!" a loud voice yelled right next to his ear. Tsuna jumped, startled, but before he could see the name and level of the boy in front of him his hand was grabbed and his entire body was being shaken with the force of his hand being pumped up and down.

"I'm Sasagawa Ryohei! I'm EXTREMELY into boxing. We should EXTREMELY train together sometime! It would be EXTREME!" yelled the boy. Then he ran off.

Tsuna blinked, hand still out in front of him, uncertain as to what had just happened. Then he groaned and rubbed his eyes. Tsuna really needed something to eat, and probably some bruise cream.

…

Tsuna was very, very thankful this gamer thing allowed pain to go away quickly. It was probably the only reason he was not stuck in bed like he thought he would be. Even so, Tsuna needed to find a better way to heal himself, and quickly. He couldn't always rely on Mama to make him snacks. And Hibari had warned him that trying to run away would only make things worse.

Tsuna needed to find a way to heal that wasn't Mama's snacks or Grandma's first aid. Food seemed to be the best answer, but it was unreliable.

Tsuna narrowed his eyes in thought. If food was best, but he couldn't rely on Mama, then he needed to become good at cooking too.

With that thought in mind, Tsuna walked downstairs to where Mama was doing some cleaning. "Mama?" he asked.

"Yes, Tsu-kun?"

"Can you teach me how to cook? And make snacks?"

Mama seemed surprised at first, then her eyes grew big and she squealed. "Oh, Mama's Tsu-kun is so cute! Of course Mama will teach you! Both cooking and baking!"

Tsuna blinked at her. She seemed to interpret that as a question.

"Oh, there's a difference between cooking and baking. Cooking is making things like steak and udon. Baking is making things like cakes and bread!"

Tsuna blinked again and decided to just go with it. There was no arguing with her when she was in this mood.

…

That was how Tsuna ended up carrying a basket with freshly baked muffins and cupcakes to the next dungeon run he had with Hibari. It had taken him forever to get to the stage anything he made was edible, and most of the creations in the basket were his Mama's. Still, they smelled nice.

That was probably what attracted the attention of Sasagawa Ryohei.

"HEYYY!" someone yelled.

Tsuna looked up. A boy slightly older than him was standing in front of him in what looked like work-out gear and a bright smile. The boy had white hair and a thin scar by one eye.

"You're the kid with the extreme training! I extremely didn't get your name last time," the kid said.

"S-Sawada Tsunayoshi," Tsuna said as he glanced at the kid's head. "Sasagawa Ryohei Extreme Boxer LV 8" it read.

"Extreme!" said Ryohei. "Hey! Is that cake?"

Tsuna looked at the basket. "Er, a little?" If cupcakes counted.

"My little sister extremely likes cakes! You should extremely come over sometime! We could train and she could have cake! It would be extreme!"

He had a little sister? Wait, did that mean….

"Ah! My little sister's name is Kyoko!"

Sasagawa Kyoko. Tsuna thought that she was the sweetest girl in the whole town. Kyoko always smiled at everyone, even Tsuna.

And she was the little sister of this guy? Did Kyoko have a hidden crazy side?

Still, Tsuna would love to see her smile again. If that meant going over to Ryohei's place, well… If he could survive Hibari, he could survive Ryohei.

Ryohei beamed when Tsuna agreed to come over later. He would have insisted that Tsuna come over now, but Tsuna said he was going to Hibari's place.

"You're friends with that extremely violent guy? Extreme! I knew you were an extreme guy Tsuna!"

Ryohei turned to go. "You should extremely come over tomorrow! To the Extreme!" he yelled as he ran off.

Tsuna noted to himself that he needed to get Mama to teach him more cake recipes. After the dungeon run Hibari was planning, he'd go on another marathon baking session, see about raising his level. Assuming he survived.

With that chilling thought, Tsuna went to go meet his doom-er, Hibari.

…

Luckily for Tsuna, Hibari seemed more interested in beating up monsters than Tsuna. He took particular delight in beating up the rats. Tsuna shivered as he watched a particularly vicious looking rat go flying. It was times like these that Tsuna appreciated that Hibari wasn't interested in killing Tsuna. If he was, Tsuna would never be able to stop him.

Still, Tsuna could admire Hibari's efficiency and grace when he was fighting. Apparently leveling up gave him a better appreciation of fighting skills, because Tsuna could now see clearer now how good of a fighter Hibari was. Leveling up, or being under the mercy of those fierce blows.

Tsuna also thought that Hibari never looked so alive, or so happy, as he did when he was fighting.

Hibari was smiling right now, as he smashed a rat's face in. It was, albeit, a bit more like a smirk then an actual smile, but it was far happier than Tsuna normally saw him. Tsuna wondered at this.

As they were walking, Tsuna glanced over at Hibari. As he did so, he realized that walking was the wrong word to describe what Hibari was doing. Stalking was what Hibari was doing, intent upon hunting down some creature only he could see. Tsuna wondered how a person could look like that.

"Hibari-san?" Tsuna asked.

"Hn."

"How can you look like that? Like you're stalking something," he quickly added as Hibari sent him an irritated glance. "Like you're happiest beating things up."

"It is because I am a carnivore," Hibari said.

Tsuna would've asked more, but Hibari was already striding ahead to the entrance of the next dungeon. Besides, Tsuna thought he could almost understand.

…

All in all, Tsuna thought that the dungeon run went extremely well. Having learned the patterns of the monsters they'd face, Hibari and, to a lesser extent, Tsuna were able to defeat their enemies quickly and with much less property damage than last time. Hibari seemed almost disappointed by that.

Maybe as a reward, Tsuna was able to find and collect a lot more loot than last time. The rats gave him teeth as always, but also bits of fur. The dungeon which shall not be named gave him pieces of cockroach exoskeleton, a crafting material. After about five seconds of freaking out and subsequently getting hit by Hibari on the head, Tsuna realized that the exoskeleton pieces might make decent armor. In the name of not getting hurt, and preventing Hibari from getting hurt again, Tsuna took the exoskeleton pieces and resolved to learn how to sew.

It was the haunted house that gave him the most though. Tsuna discovered as he pushed over a dresser to get to a ghost that he could loot things like drawers for items contained within. Tsuna had wanted to investigate more, but Hibari was fighting the boss, a black slime monster called "Amalgamation of Unhappiness" and Tsuna had to help him. And then Hibari wanted to just go on to the next dungeon, so Tsuna had to come back after Hibari had destroyed the dungeon that will not be named and gone home.

Tsuna had looted all the drawers he could. The upstairs ones had held mostly moldy scraps of fabric, a crafting material with a poor rating, but also a few shirts and pieces of dusty jewelry. Tsuna thought that if he cleaned up the jewelry he could give it to Mama. There was also money everywhere, and Tsuna was very happy to see this. He couldn't keep stealing bottles from Mama's cupboards.

The downstairs held even more. Tsuna picked up more scraps of fabric but also wooden spoons and spatulas and even a frying pan. The best part was when Tsuna found a pair of knitting needles that weren't broken. Grandma had told him that she could teach him to knit, if he was interested. With his own needles he wouldn't be dependent on Grandma or Mama to lend him theirs. Maybe he could knit some kind of armor.

…

Mama was, as Tsuna had thought, delighted that Tsuna wanted to bake a cake for a girl. She bustled about the kitchen, grabbing this and that to add to Tsuna's cake. Even the fact that the first batter was ruined and the second one burnt could stem her happiness.

Eventually, the third one turned out alright. Tsuna managed to make a basic sugar frosting for the cake, and Mama cut up a strawberry to go on top for decoration. Mama called it the cutest little cake ever and shooed Tsuna out the door with a "Be sure to smile at her, honey!"

It only took Tsuna a few minutes to walk to the Sasagawa residence. He was surprised it was so close, but then, they did go to the same school.

It looked like an ordinary house. There was nothing outside to suggest it was the house of a boxing maniac and an angel. Tsuna swallowed. For a moment he wanted to run away. Just last week he was Dame-Tsuna; how could even think of doing this. Still, he remembered Hibari, and how he looked almost proud the first time Tsuna had managed to dodge correctly. He remembered Mama and how happy she was helping Tsuna make his cake. He remembered Grandma, who had patted him on the head the last time Tsuna had talked to her. He could do this.

Tsuna quickly reached out and hit the doorbell before his courage could desert him.

"Yes?" a soft voice asked from within. There were a few quiet footsteps and then Kyoko opened the door.

Tsuna was startled, temporarily forgetting how to talk. He couldn't believe Kyoko would open the door. He was prepared for Ryohei, not her.

"H-h-h-here," Tsuna stammered out, handing her the basket. "Eh?" she said as she accepted it.

Tsuna blushed and ducked his head. "R-R-Ryohei i-invited me over. H-he mentioned t-that, ah, y-you liked cake. S-so I m-made some," he mumbled.

"Oh, really?" Kyoko said. "Thank you! You must be Sawada Tsunayoshi. Onii-san mentioned you." She beamed at him. "Oh, but I hope he wasn't a bother. Honestly, he can be so demanding sometimes. Sorry if he bothered you."

"H-he didn't, not really." Tsuna gave her a small smile. She smiled back. "Well, Onii-san ran out about an hour ago, but we can eat the cake while we wait for him, if you want to."

Tsuna just nodded. He couldn't believe how lucky he was, getting invited into Kyoko's house, by Kyoko herself.

Kyoko's house was surprisingly like his own. It was an ordinary house with pictures on the walls of family outings to the zoo or the beach, flowers in a pot on the kitchen counter, and a simple TV in a room with a couch. Kyoko led him into the kitchen and gestured for him to sit down at the table while she got plates and silverware.

As he watched her set out the plates, Tsuna couldn't help but feel he had made a huge mistake. What if the cake tasted bad? What if it had fallen apart on the way here? What if-

Kyoko unwrapped the cake and sighed in happiness. "It's so cute!" she said. She… didn't seem to be faking it. Tsuna just thought it looked like a cake, but if she was happy….

Kyoko cut out two pieces, one for him and one for her. "Uwahh," she said as she put a piece in her mouth. "It tastes gooood."

"R-really?" said Tsuna. "A-ah, I'm glad." He had worked very hard on it, and it was worth it to see Kyoko's smile.

Wait, if Kyoko's brother was super strong, did that mean Kyoko was super strong too? Tsuna glanced up at her LV. "Sasagawa Kyoko Classmate LV3"

Tsuna wasn't sure if he felt happy or disappointed. On one hand, he was very glad Kyoko wasn't a maniac, on the other hand he felt oddly unhappy about it. Then he remembered Hibari's snarl as he threw a gigantic rat across the room, and the insane strength Ryohei had used to shake his hand with.

Tsuna decided to be happy Kyoko was normal.

"Ne, Tsunayoshi-san?" Kyoko asked.

"A-ah, yes?" Tsuna hoped she hadn't caught him staring. That would be so embarrassing.

"You are friends with Hibari-san, right?"

That… was a good question. According to the gamer thing he was, but… did friends really ruthlessly beat other friends up? Still, he didn't really have anyone else that could be called a friend so…

"I-I guess so."

"Then, don't you worry?"

Tsuna looked at her blankly. "About Hibari-san," she clarified. "I always worry about Nii-san when he fights, because he has gotten really hurt before. Don't you try to stop Hibari-san?"

Ah-ha-ha. Hibari would murder him if he tried.

Still, Tsuna remembered the look on Hibari's face as he went after his "prey", and the grace of which he had attacked.

"H-Hibari-san is a fighter," Tsuna started slowly. "I-I mean, he really, really likes fighting. It's what he is good at. I don't think I would be a good friend if I tried to stop that. B-but still, I do worry, a-about him getting h-hurt." Tsuna had had nightmares where he couldn't stop the monster rat from killing Hibari. "T-that's one reason I am learning First Aid." Among other ways to heal. "S-so that next time, I can heal him when he gets hurt." Tsuna hoped that that never, ever happened, but he knew that it was most likely a matter of time.

Kyoko looked almost… regretful at his answer. She seemed to be thinking over something as she chewed her cake. "Ne, the next time you go to your lessons… can I come?" she asked.

"E-eh?" Tsuna was surprised. "I-if you want to." He didn't mind and he didn't think Grandma would. She always seemed unhappy that none of the other kids ever helped out like he did.

Kyoko beamed at him. "Great!" She said.

Then there was a slight rumbling the grew louder, as well as a shout of "EXTREEMMEE!"

"Oh dear, Nii-san's back," said Kyoko.

Tsuna suddenly felt apprehension. He had completely forgotten about the boxing maniac.

"A-ah, maybe I should get going-" Tsuna started but before he could finish Ryohei burst in through the door.

"EXTREME! You're here, Sawada-san! Then we can extremely train some more, until we are truly EXTREME MEN!"

Tsuna looked at Sasagawa Ryohei, and realized that not only was Ryohei extremely loud, his eyes also seemed to be _on fire_. With that revelation, he thought he could vaguely hear a dying animal. A second later he realized that the sound was coming from him.

Luckily, Kyoko didn't seem to notice. "Onii-san, don't cause trouble for others," she scolded.

"Ah! Sorry Kyoko! I mean, will you extremely train with me Sawada-san! As an Extreme Man!" yelled Ryohei.

Tsuna didn't want to. However, he couldn't miss the almost pleading tone in Ryohei's voice, or the way Ryohei's eyes almost begged him to say yes.

Tsuna felt his resolve crumple. "O-okay," he said, weakly.

Kyoko looked surprised, but Ryohei gave him a smile so bright it seemed to be as blinding as the sun. As Tsuna blinked away sun-spots Ryohei launched forward and gave him a sweaty hug. Then he grabbed Tsuna and pulled him away to the backyard.

"Sawada-san! What extreme training do you do with Hibari-san?" Ryohei asked.

"A-ah, um, he mostly just tries to hit me and I try to dodge." Hibari succeeded a lot more than Tsuna did, that was for sure.

"Extreme! How do you extremely fight back?"

"Er… I don't."

"Why not? It's the best part of any Extreme training."

"I, um, don't know how," Tsuna admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"EXTREME! You truly are an EXTREME MAN, fighting even without knowing how!"

"E-eh?" Tsuna was waiting for Ryohei to call him unextreme, not this.

"Ah! But then you can't even get to the extremely best part!" said Ryohei, apparently forgetting Tsuna was there.

"I know!" Ryohei put his hands on Tsuna's shoulders. "SAWADA TSUNAYOSHI! I WILL EXTRMEMELY TEACH YOU HOW TO FIGHT!"

…

It took a while for Tsuna's ears to stop ringing. It took even longer for him to snap out his apparent state of shock.

Tsuna had _never_ thought that Ryohei would decide something like that.

But it was okay that Tsuna was incapable of doing anything other than standing there as Ryohei, overcome with excitement, had started running around grabbing random things and punching the air.

The only thing worse was that a sign had popped up. " **Quest Alert!** Learn from Sasagawa Ryohei the basics of fighting! Learn and perform ten times a [Basic Punch]. Reward: +50XP, increase reputation with Sasagawa Ryohei and Sasagawa Kyoko. Failure: decrease reputation with Sasagawa Ryohei and Sasagawa Kyoko."

Tsuna whimpered.

…

"…And that is how you throw an extreme punch!"

Tsuna blinked at Ryohei, then looked at the fist Ryohei had extended into the air.

"U-um, what?" Tsuna had understood that boxing was an extreme sport, something about Greeks and manly men, then passionate training and fingers.

Ryohei didn't mind. He just cheerfully grabbed Tsuna's hand, formed it into a fist and yanked it forward in an imitation of a punch. Tsuna yelped as he was nearly pulled off his feet.

"And that is how you throw an extreme punch!" Ryohei repeated. "Now you try!" Tsuna gave him an unbelieving look. Ryohei interpreted that "I still don't get it" and yanked his arm again.

Tsuna thought that if Ryohei yanked on his arm again he might pull it off. It was starting to hurt. So he screwed up his face and thrust his fist forward.

"Extremely good!" Ryohei yelled. "But you need to Extremely put all your strength into it. Like your extremely trying to punch through!"

Tsuna tried to punch again, harder.

"Extreme! That's how you extremely do it, Sawada-san!" Ryohei yelled happily. He clapped Tsuna on the shoulder so hard he knocked Tsuna into the dirt. This had the added benefit of distracting Tsuna from the new orange pop-up, saying " **Congratulations!** You have learned a new skill, [Basic Punch]. [Basic Punch] is now LV1."

"Now we extremely practice TO THE EXTREME!"

Tsuna looked up at Ryohei from the ground in terror. Between Hibari and this guy, Tsuna would be headed for an early grave.

"C'mon!" Ryohei yanked Tsuna off the ground, completely oblivious to his whimpers.

…

Tsuna hoped Mama wouldn't be to mad at him when he came home late and covered in dirt.

He suspected it would be a much more common occurrence now that Sasagawa Ryohei was listed under "Friends" in his Social tab.

"Here, Sawada-san. I cleaned the plate the cake was on for you and put it in the basket," Kyoko said, handing Tsuna the basket. Tsuna smiled at her, too tired to be embarrassed.

"Thank you," he said.

"Oh, no, thank you! I loved your cake! Will you becoming over again?"

Tsuna hesitated. On one hand, he was terrified of Ryohei. On the other hand, Kyoko. Kyoko looked wistfully back at the house. "Ryohei would love to see you again. I don't think I've seen him that happy in a long time." She seemed… almost sad. Dang it.

"I-I'll come again," Tsuna said.

Kyoko turned to him with such a brilliant smile Tsuna felt his own mouth lift up in response. "Oh, thank you so much!" she said. Then she turned almost bashful. "In that case, may I call you Tsuna-kun?" she asked.

"S-sure!" Tsuna squeaked, overjoyed. He hadn't imagined something as wonderful as this happening. And as he walked his way home, Tsuna felt so happy and light it seemed he could fly.

The fact that Sasagawa Kyoko was also now listed under "Friends" on his Social tab was icing on the cake.

…

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Tsuna thought as he stood in front on the Sasagawa house. Sure Kyoko had asked to go with him the next time he went to Grandma's house, but it wasn't like she actually meant it or something like that. She was probably just humoring him.

He almost turned and walked away, but then he thought, _what if Kyoko did mean it? What if she really wanted to go?_

Tsuna swallowed. Only one way to find out. Just like the day before, Tsuna shakily and quickly hit the doorbell.

Once more he waited a few minutes before Kyoko opened the door. "Oh, Tsuna-kun! Hello, what are you doing here?"

"H-hello, um, you mentioned going to Grandma's house..?" Tsuna stuttered.

"Oh, of course!" Kyoko smiled brightly. "Let me get my shoes and then we can go."

It only took a few minutes before Tsuna and Kyoko were walking down the path to Grandma's house. Suddenly Kyoko turned to Tsuna. "Is she nice?" Kyoko asked.

"H-huh?" Tsuna asked.

"Is Grandma-san nice?" Kyoko asked again.

"A-ah, yes. She's always been nice to me," Tsuna answered.

"Good! I hope we become great friends," Kyoko said. And they continued along in a more comfortable silence.

…

"Good morning Tsuna!" Grandma said. "Oh, who is this you've brought with you? A friend?"

"Ah, yes! This is Sasagawa Kyoko. She wants to learn first-aid too. Kyoko-chan, this is Grandma," Tsuna introduced them.

"Nice to meet you!" said Kyoko.

"It's nice to meet you too, dear," Grandma said, but there was something off about her smile. It seemed to Tsuna that it was almost as if Grandma wasn't sure how to treat Kyoko.

"Come in, come in," Grandma said. "I have tea. Tsuna, would you go and get my first-aid kit? I think I left it upstairs."

Tsuna was uncertain. Grandma had never left it upstairs before, but she had asked him. Tsuna nodded and walked upstairs. Like he thought, it wasn't where it should be upstairs. As he was walking back down to tell Grandma, he heard talking and his name. Tsuna slowed to a stop and listened.

"About how long have you known Tsuna?" Grandma asked.

"Oh, I've seen him around forever, but I only really met him yesterday. My brother knows him better than I do."

"I see. Then we have you come to me to learn first-aid?" It sounded like Grandma was interrogating Kyoko.

"W-well I was talking to Tsuna-kun yesterday and we started talking about his friend, Hibari-san. He mentioned that one reason he was learning first-aid was because he knew Hibari-san liked fighting and he wanted to be able to patch Hibari-san up after each fight." Here Kyoko paused. "My brother also really likes fighting, and in the past he once got really hurt. I made him promise not to get into fights like that anymore, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have, if Onii-san would be happier if he could fight freely. So I want to learn first-aid to be able to help my brother and make him happier."

"Ah. Then what are your intentions toward Tsuna?"

Again, Kyoko paused. Tsuna felt his heart speed up. Did she not like him? Did she think he was a dork?

"I don't know Tsuna very well, but it seems to me like he's a really great guy. He really cheered Onii-san up yesterday, and he keeps his word. I'd like to be his friend."

Tsuna felt like dancing in the middle of the hallway. She liked him. Kyoko really liked him.

"And if Tsuna gets into trouble? If he gets hurt?" Grandma asked.

"Then I want to be able to help him." Kyoko said firmly.

"Even if he seems to be a colossal dork sometimes? Or acts strange? Will you still stand by him?"

"Even then." Kyoko said. It sounded like a promise.

"Remember that," Grandma said. Then she raised her voice. "Tsuna! I found the first-aid kit. You can come down."

Tsuna realized with a start he had been eaves-dropping. He decided to just not mention the conversation he had just overheard. It seemed private. He went downstairs and joined up with Kyoko and Grandma.

…

Tsuna and Kyoko said their goodbyes to Grandma. She gave each of them a wave and told Kyoko that she was welcome to join Tsuna's first-aid lessons with her. Grandma seemed so warm towards Kyoko that it was like earlier's chilliness was just a forgotten memory.

Kyoko cheerfully agreed and she and Tsuna walked off together. After Tsuna had walked Kyoko to her home, he headed home himself.

As he walked, Tsuna thought about the conversation he had overheard. Kyoko seemed really protective of her brother. Tsuna wondered what would happen if she, or her brother, were caught in one of the dungeons. He didn't think he could protect either of them if they did. That felt like… a betrayal. A betrayal of the trust Kyoko had shown in him. Tsuna needed to get stronger. He didn't want anyone to get hurt like Hibari did.

Well, the game guides did say that "grinding" or repeating an action over and over again raised LVs.

Tsuna started punching the air, repeating his [Basic Punch] on the way home.

…

"What?" Tsuna asked.

"Kyoko said that since you're such an EXTREME guy, that can EXTREMELY patch me up if I get hurt, I can EXTREMELY fight when you are around," Ryohei yelled happily. He seemed even more excited than normal, yelling his extreme's even louder. Tsuna didn't know that was possible.

But, more importantly, what was he going to do? Today was a dungeon day _with Hibari_. Hibari would _kill_ Ryohei if Ryohei prevented him from going. Tsuna would have to back out as quickly as possible.

"Um, sorry, but I'm meeting Hibari-san…"

"EXTREME! Where at?"

"Er, his house-"

That was all the invitation Ryohei needed to grab Tsuna's arm and start running for Hibari's house. Tsuna was afraid that he was becoming slightly too used to the unusual because his primary thought was _How in the world did Ryohei know where Hibari's house was!?_

…

"Herbivore," Hibari addressed Tsuna. "Why is _he_ here?"

"He" was currently running around yelling "Extreme!" at the top of his lungs.

"I-er-he-he kinda just grabbed my hand and ran…" Tsuna said before he watched Hibari raise a tonfa to get rid of Ryohei.

"B-but now that he's here, we can go to different dungeons, right? More dangerous ones," Tsuna said hurriedly. He did not want Hibari to injure Ryohei on a day Tsuna was supposed to protect Ryohei.

Hibari paused, clearly contemplating the pros and cons of the situation. Finally he lowered his tonfas. "Herbivore," he said, turning to Tsuna. "Explain to the loud herbivore what we are doing. If he messes up…" Hibari raised a tonfa.

Tsuna gulped. "Hey, Ryohei…" Tsuna started. He didn't want to get beat up today, before the dungeons and have to use up all his snacks beforehand.

…

"I knew you were extreme, Sawada-san, but now I know you are truly an EXTREME MAN!" Ryohei yelled joyfully. Tsuna winced a bit at the noise, glancing towards where Hibari strode a few meters in front of them, just out of "crowding" range. Luckily, Hibari didn't seem too bothered.

It was funny, but Tsuna found it easier to tell Ryohei about his ability when Hibari was closer. Maybe he found Hibari comforting…?

Tsuna shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. Nope, nada, not happening. He must find it easier because there was nothing scarier than confiding in Hibari. Yes, that was it. If he ever actually found Hibari comforting…

It would clearly be a sign of Tsuna going insane.

"What if you extremely click on them?" Ryohei asked enthusiastically, gesturing at the now-visible bright yellow display he had.

"What?" asked Tsuna, coming back to the real world. Ryohei happily repeated his question.

Tsuna blinked at him. "What do you mean, click on them?"

"It's an extreme internet game, right? So you can extremely click on anything to the extreme!"

Tsuna was pretty sure that this was real life, not the internet, but… since when did logic apply to his life anymore? Besides, didn't the map symbols say something when he touched them?

He shrugged and "clicked" on an item in his inventory, the knitting needles. "Old Knitting Needles, Tool . These probably belonged to someone a long time ago. Now they are just gathering dust. +1 to Arts and Crafts skills when equipped. Required for the Knit skill."

Well, that was cool. Tsuna wondered what else he could "click" on. He could probably click on anything in his Inventory, and to either side of that was Social and… Passive Effects.

Tsuna's breath hitched. _The Seal_. Maybe he could click on the seal.

With bated breath Tsuna clicked on Passive Effects and located IX's Seal. He hesitated a second before clicking on it.

"IX's Seal: -50% all abilities. -50% all experience gain," it read. "Also seals all Vongola and Sky abilities. Placed on Sawada Tsunayoshi by Vongola Nono at the request of Sawada Iemitsu."

Placed on Sawada Tsunayoshi by Vongola Nono at the request of Sawada Iemitsu.

 _Placed on Sawada Tsunayoshi by Vongola Nono at the request of Sawada Iemitsu._

Tsuna's own father had wanted Tsuna useless.

…

Tsuna hadn't felt his legs give out. He was only vaguely aware of Ryohei shaking him back and forth. It was only when Hibari smashed him upside the head with a tonfa did Tsuna remember where he was.

Tsuna blinked up at Ryohei and Hibari.

"Sasagawa-san! What's the EXTREME problem!?" That was Ryohei.

"Herbivore. What happened?" That was Hibari.

"Th-the seal… I-I… m-my father," Tsuna's voice broke. "My father asked for me to be sealed."

Hibari immediately understood. Ryohei, who hadn't heard about it, looked confused. He was about to open his mouth to ask what that was when Hibari smacked him and pulled him away, allowing Tsuna to gather himself while Hibari gave the bare bones to Ryohei.

Tsuna focused on breathing in and out, in and out, like he always did when he was in pain. He didn't understand why his father would do something like that. Weren't fathers supposed to love their children, to want the best for them?

Tsuna felts tears prickle at the corners of his eyes. He quickly rubbed them out. Tsuna didn't want to cry here, in front of his friends, not over that- that- that no-good _waste_ of a man.

"Tsunayoshi," Hibari said. "If you wish to return later, I do not mind waiting a day."

Tsuna inhaled sharply, and shook his head. If he went back now, he'd have to face the house that his father had bought and left him and Mama alone in. He'd have to face the pictures on the walls and all the little reminders that there was supposed to be another person there.

Tsuna didn't think he could bare it.

Tsuna didn't think he could just sit there and think about how his father had thrown him away. He had to do something to get his mind off of things. The dungeon would do it.

Tsuna pushed himself to his feet. "Let's go," he said, and was proud at how his voice didn't crack.

…

The dungeon entrance was a dilapidated gate to the town's graveyard. Beyond the gate the foggy mist swirled, concealing the insides of the dungeon. Tsuna knew that the graveyard didn't actually look that way, but he was too angry to care. He took the lead and pushed his way inside.

He was vaguely aware of Hibari and Ryohei heading off in different directions, but Tsuna went straight down the middle. The blood was pounding in his head and he couldn't think straight. All he could see was his father. His father looking at him with uncaring eyes. His father saying "Tsuna" like Tsuna was the dirt beneath his shoes.

"Tsuna, can't you listen?" his father said.

"D-dad?" Tsuna squeaked, looking in front of him _at his father_.

Tsuna's father clicked his tongue irritation. "Finally. Can't you listen boy?"

"I-I-I," Tsuna stuttered at the man that had abandoned him, had cursed him. "W- _why_?"

Iemitsu snorted. "Like you can't guess. All I wanted was some fun with a pretty young woman. I'd bring her with me around the world, just like in an adventure book. But then she got pregnant, with _you_. You can't bring a baby anywhere! Still, if I couldn't get rid of you, I could at least make sure I never had to see you. Fathers always have to be there when their children do something good, so if you were useless, I would never need to go to a little back-water town in the middle of nowhere." Tsuna's father sneered. "You were probably going to be useless anyways, I was just making sure."

"N-no," Tsuna whispered. "NO, YOU'RE WRONG!" He yelled.

His father laughed at him. "Aww, look at little Dame-Tsuna. Can't take it?" He started walking towards Tsuna.

"LEAVE ME ALONE," Tsuna yelled.

"TSUNA!" a loud voice yelled. Then Ryohei burst through the fog like the sun.

"Sasagawa-san!" Tsuna breathed.

"YOU SHUT UP!" Ryohei yelled. "TSUNA IS THE MOST EXTREME PERSON I HAVE EVER MET. HE EVEN MADE MY SISTER EXTREMELY LET ME FIGHT. HE. IS. EEXXTRREEMMMEEE!"

He ran forward and punched Tsuna's father in the face. As he did so Tsuna saw his father's face flicker _as if he wasn't real_.

Tsuna felt his mind sharpen. _Imposter_ , his mind whispered as he looked at the thing wearing his father's face. "[Observe]" he whispered.

"Fear-wraith LV16 HP100," reported the orange box. " This creature feeds off of the fear and despair others give off. To get close to its victims it takes the shape of loved ones in order to reject a person. Weak to light."

"Sasagawa-san! He isn't real! It's just a monster in disguise!" Tsuna yelled.

"EXTREMMEEE PUUNNCCHHH!" Ryohei yelled as he punched the thing in the face. The fear-wraith's HP dropped to zero and it disappeared.

Tsuna ran up to Ryohei. "We need to find Hibari-san! He doesn't know what these things are," he said.

Ryohei nodded. "He extremely went that way!" he said, pointed.

Tsuna and Ryohei started jogging in that direction, yelling "Hibari!"

"It takes the shape of loved ones! Don't listen to it!" Tsuna yelled.

"HIBARI! WHERE ARE YOU TO THE EXTREME!" yelled Ryohei.

To the left, Tsuna heard a growling. He raised his fists, but then Hibari stalked out of the fog.

"Herbivores," he growled

"Wait!" said Tsuna as Ryohei reached forward to grab Hibari. "[Observe]," Tsuna said. "Hibari Kyouya Demon Kid LV 11 HP 178 FP 70. Descended from Japanese warlords on one side and Chinese martial artists on the other, Hibari Kyouya is a fearsome warrior even at the tender age of ten. He considers it his sacred duty to protect Namimori and beat up weak "herbivores"."

"It's him," he told Ryohei. "Thank goodness you're here," Tsuna told Hibari as Ryohei yelled "EXTREME!" "The fog has fear-wraiths in them-creatures that look like people you care about-and they try to attack you that way. We need to stay together."

Hibari narrowed his eyes at Tsuna but acquiesced with a sharp nod. "They're weak to light," Tsuna continued. "I have a flashlight and several Molotovs. We can use the flashlight to find them and then the Molotovs to create an attack zone."

Both Ryohei and Hibari nodded at this, serious.

"Okay," said Tsuna. "Let's move."

He went in the middle with the flashlight. Hibari and Ryohei circled around him, killing the fear-wraiths Tsuna caught in the flashlight's beam. It soon became clear that the fear-wraiths were originating from three "cursed" areas, a broken and scraggly tree, a blackish, poisoned-looking pond, and a barren and rocky plot. These were the areas Tsuna used his Molotovs.

After Tsuna threw down his Molotovs, the fear-wraiths would start swarming them. That was an absolute free-for-all.

A fear-wraith with a face full of needle sharp teeth lunged at Tsuna. Tsuna used a basic punch with his right hand to smash its head. As it was reeling, he punched it with his left hand. "But you need to Extremely put all your strength into it. Like your extremely trying to punch through!" Ryohei had said. Tsuna lunged forward, all of his strength in his fist. The fear-wraith shrieked and vanished.

" **Congratulations!** You have created a combo [3 Punch KO]," an orange screen popped up. Tsuna dismissed it. He could contemplate it later. Right now he needed to focus on the battle.

The swarm lasted for about a minute at each spot. After all three were down, the ground started to rumble.

"Boss coming!" Tsuna yelled.

The fog convalesced in the center, swirling up and up into a huge towering creature.

"[Observe]," whispered Tsuna.

"Shadow of Fear LV32 HP500," reported the orange box. "A mass of fear and despair created by the combined emotions of thousands. Weak to light."

"Go after its legs!" Tsuna yelled. "I'll try to get its face!"

Ryohei and Hibari ran towards it. Tsuna backed up, Molotov in hand, trying to get a good path to the monster's face.

The monster yelled in rage as Hibari and Ryohei ran around it. It took a swipe at Ryohei, scratching him on the leg.

When Tsuna saw that, it was like everything in him went diamond clear. He saw the monster rear back slowly, through a film of orange. Almost without feeling it, he threw the Molotov, watching it soar through the air in a near perfect arch. It hit the thing it the face and shattered.

The monster clawed at its face, screaming. It knelt down, giving Hibari a chance to smash into it, knocking it to the ground. Ryohei and Tsuna ran towards it, Ryohei staggering and Tsuna with another Molotov. Ryohei started punching it and Tsuna smashed a Molotov over the thing's head.

The monster screamed again, flopping around on the ground. Its HP was almost zero. "One more time!" Tsuna yelled. He lit his last Molotov and stabbed the monster in the face just as Ryohei and Hibari smashed into it with respective weapons.

The thing gave one final scream and disappeared.

All the adrenalin disappeared from Tsuna's body and he sat back his butt. He stared at where the monster had been. Then he started to laugh in relief.

Next to him Ryohei punched the air with enthusiasm. "That was EXTREME!" he yelled.

On his other side Hibari allowed himself a smirk.

Once Tsuna stopped laughing he tended to Ryohei's wounds, earning himself another "Extreme!"

"You are truly an EXTREME MAN!" Ryohei told him. "Thanks," said Tsuna, bashfully.

"Yeah, so don't listen to your father. He's completely unextreme. You're extremely amazing!"

"In fact," Ryohei started. "If he ever comes back, I'll extremely punch him for you."

Tsuna smiled up at him. "Thank you," he said sincerely. He felt touched. Nobody had ever offered to do something like that for him before. They always said that he needed to show more appreciation, before they turned and started saying how his father must have left the family behind Tsuna's and Mama's backs.

"No problem! Hey, since we're both such EXTREME MEN, let's be brothers. Call me Onii-san!"

"Y-yes, Onii-san!" Tsuna said, overjoyed.

" **Congratulations!** Sasagawa Ryohei is now your **Sun Guardian**!" said a new orange pop-up.

"E-eh?" said Tsuna. He looked up at Ryohei. Above his head it said "Sasagawa Ryohei Tsuna's Sun Guardian LV 9."

Tsuna couldn't help it. He started laughing. His life was just getting crazier and crazier. Yet somehow he couldn't regret it.

Then Sasagawa Kyoko and Miura Haru discovered what was going on and Tsuna's little group of friends grew by two more.

….

 **AN:** Holy cow this took forever. Still, I like how it turned out. I'm going back and tweaking a few numbers. Also, Tsuna's guardians aren't changing. The order in which he earns them definitely is.


	4. Sasagawa Kyoko and Miura Haru

**Disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.

This chapter was inspired by **Maxfic** 's "Naruto: The Gamer Files" and **Shadlith** 's "Grimm Games". Check them out!

…

Tsuna thought that Miura Haru was a little overenthusiastic, but very fun.

He met her in a bookstore while browsing for a beginner's book on knitting. Grandma had told him that was a good idea so he could check his work at home and have projects to work on that he wouldn't need supervision for.

Tsuna had seen the perfect book, _Fun Knitting for Beginners_ , on a high shelf, just out of reach. He stood on his tippy toes, trying to get it when a small hand darted out and grabbed it for him.

"Ah! Thank you," said Tsuna, turning to the owner of the hand. Next to him was a girl about Tsuna's age in a brightly colored dress with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Hahi! No problem, Haru is happy to help!" said the girl. She took a look at the book.

"Ah! Are you learning to knit? Haru would like to learn how to too!"

"U-um, yes," said Tsuna shyly.

"Hahi! Great! Maybe we can learn together! Haru's name is Miura Haru. Your name is?"

"S-Sawada Tsunayoshi," Tsuna said. He didn't know this girl, but she seemed very friendly.

"Hahi! Let's be best friends! Can Haru call you Tsuna-chan?"

"E-eh?" _Chan!?_ "B-but I'm a boy."

"Hahi?!" Haru looked shocked. "B-but you're so cute! Haru wants to hug you!"

"Hiee?!" Tsuna could feel his face turn bright red.

"Kyaa! You're even more adorable! Haru can't help herself!"

Then she reached out and hugged him.

Tsuna's brain promptly short-circuited.

When he finally could think again, he was being shaken vigorously by Haru.

"Haru is sorry! Haru didn't mean to shock Sawada-san!" she kept saying.

"A-ah! I'm okay!" Tsuna said.

Immediately Haru backed off, looking miserable. "Haru is sorry! Haru didn't mean to shock Sawada-san," she said again.

She looked so sad that Tsuna couldn't help but feel a little bit of his heart go out to her.

"I-it's okay," he said softly. "And you can call me Tsuna-kun."

Haru brightened right up.

"Hahi! Thank you Tsuna-kun!" She pulled a piece of paper out of her bag, scribbled something on it and gave it to him. "This is Haru's address. Come visit Haru sometime!" she told him.

Then she skipped out of the store. Tsuna was left inside, clutching a book on knitting and a scrap of paper. A window popped up. "Miura Haru is now a Friend," it said.

Tsuna could only give a dry laugh at that. Well, he had wanted friends. Tsuna would have been happy with one or two friends, who was he to say no to four. _Three, three_ , he corrected himself. He still wasn't sure Hibari counted.

Tsuna looked down at the book he had tried to grab. As he did so, another screen popped up. "You have acquired a skill book! Would you like to learn "Fun Knitting for Beginners", Yes/No?" it said.

Tsuna paused. _A new feature?_ He glanced around. No, this place was too public. He resolved to buy the book and figure it out at home.

…

Later, ensconced in his room, Tsuna pulled out the book again. The same window popped up. Tsuna spent a moment staring at the window, weighing the pros and cons before he hit Yes.

Immediately the world around him dissolved. The book in front of him burst into orange flames that flickered and then jumped up to reach Tsuna. Images flashed through his mind, of how to hold his needles, the different sizes, various stitches.

Then, as soon as it started, the odd sensation stopped and Tsuna was back in his bedroom. He sat down shakily as a new window popped up. " **Congratulations!** You have learned a new skill, [Knit]. [Knit] is now LV1," it said. Five more immediately popped up afterwards. " **Congratulations!** You have gained a new recipe, [Basic Scarf]!" " **Congratulations!** You have gained a new recipe, [Basic Beanie]!" " **Congratulations!** You have gained a new recipe, [Knit Flower]!" " **Congratulations!** You have gained a new recipe, [Basic Poncho]!" " **Congratulations!** You have gained a new recipe, [Basic Knited Blanket]!"

Tsuna blinked at all the windows crowding his view. Then he shook himself and put a hand on his head. What _was_ that?

He absentmindedly picked up the needles and the yarn he had bought to practice with. Then he blinked again as he realized that he knew how to hold the needles. Tsuna knew how to knit.

Tsuna dropped the needles and yarn in shock. Then he looked at where the book had been moments before. Only a spot of ash remained.

Tsuna shook himself again. Best not look a gift horse in the mouth. He picked the needles and yarn back up and began to knit himself a scarf.

…

So apparently learning from a "skill book" didn't mean one could do the skill well. Tsuna looked the tangled mess that was meant to be his scarf. It looked like one big long knot. He sighed and began to pick it apart. Well, at least it seemed he leveled up quickly. Only an hour of practice and he was level three. You could see the difference in his work too. The edge of the scarf nearest to him looked almost like he knew what he was doing.

Still, he'd been doing this for a while. Maybe it was time for Tsuna to take a break and do something else. After all, there were still a lot of things he didn't know about his gamer ability. Like the whole "Sun Guardian" thing, what was that about?

At the same time though, Tsuna wasn't certain he wanted to know more. He didn't think he could take it if another one of the people he trusted turned out to be a scum-bag.

Well, he did have an address to look into. Tsuna pulled out the piece of paper Haru had given him. His reading had gotten better with his intelligence, so it wasn't too difficult to decipher Haru's slightly messy handwriting.

Tsuna wanted to see if his map feature would allow him to find Haru's house. He had been too distracted by the pretty pictures and dungeons before to figure out some of his less apparent features. Now that his intelligence was higher, he wanted to see if he could use his map like an actual map.

"Map," said Tsuna, looking at the piece of paper, trying to memorize Haru's address. When he thought that he had it, he looked up at his map.

 _What,_ thought Tsuna. There was now a sun symbol on his map. Furthermore, it was _moving_. What.

Hesitantly, Tsuna clicked on it. "Sasagawa Ryohei, Sun Guardian," it read. "Chat?"

Ryohei?! Tsuna wasn't certain what the whole "Sun Guardian" thing did, if anything, but he now had a pretty good clue. Still, he wondered how the chat feature worked.

Well, no time like the present. Tsuna laughed inwardly as he thought of how a few weeks ago this would have been unthinkable. Giant monsters really do a lot for ones courage, and didn't that sound wrong.

The chat button beeped once when he pressed on it, then an orange box popped up in the corner. "EXTREME! A YELLOW BOX JUST APPEARED!" came out of it.

"Nii-san?" Tsuna asked.

"Tsuna! Are you Extremely trapped in that little yellow box? Don't worry, Nii-san will extremely get you out!"

"N-no! I'm alright, Nii-san! It's a chat feature, in the game."

There was a pause. "That is EXTREMELY COOL, Tsuna! What else can it do?"

"Err…" Tsuna took a closer look at the chat box. There were several buttons: privacy setting, mute and text.

Tsuna tried pressing the "text" button. Immediately, a keyboard appeared in front of him. "It looks like we can text," Tsuna wrote down.

"THAT IS ALSO EXTREME," Ryohei wrote back.

"I'm pretty sure we can also mute each other. And privacy settings…" Tsuna pushed the button. It opened up a small menu. There were three options: Everyone, Those in Chat and One Way. "…I have no idea what that does," Tsuna concluded.

"EXTREME!" Ryohei wrote. Then he switched over to speaking. "Hey Tsuna, my sister's been wondering when you're planning on coming over again."

"Well, I was planning on going out today-" if only to figure out where Haru's house was"-so I could stop by, I mean, if you really want me. Oh, and I don't have any cakes, so-"

"That's EXTREMELY okay, Tsuna! Kyoko made cakes herself. You can have one if you come over!"

Him? Have one of sweet Kyoko's cakes? He couldn't, she probably worked really hard on those and they were probably meant for someone else also.

"I want to see you too! And I think Kyoko wants to talk to you about something."

Oh. Immediately Tsuna began to feel slightly ill. Did he do something wrong? He had made sure that Ryohei was healed of any injuries he might have after that last fight, like Kyoko had wanted. Was she angry at him? Did she change her mind?

"Hey, I can EXTREMELY see your house, Tsuna! I'll come get you!" Ryohei yelled happily.

"Ah, really that's not necessary, Ryohei-I mean Onii-san," Tsuna stuttered. He really did not want to go outside right now.

But it was too late. Ring-ring-ring went the doorbell. "Tsuna!" Ryohei yelled from both downstairs and Tsuna's chat window. Tsuna jumped up and ran for the door. _Please, don't let Mama open it_ , he thought, desperately. _I don't want to go outside again._ He was almost to his bedroom door when his foot slipped on one of the manga books Tsuna had been reading earlier. The world tipped backwards. _Bang_. "-1 HP".

Mama opened the door. "Oh, hello," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sasagawa Ryohei! I'm Tsuna's EXTREME older brother!"

"Really? He hasn't told me. Tsuna!" Mama looked back at Tsuna, who was crawling out of his room.

"Why haven't you told you had such a nice older brother!" she scolded lightly.

"Ah, we only met a few days ago," Tsuna explained, confused. Did she think Ryohei was normal or something?

"Really?" Mama hummed in delight. "Well, good for you for making such a good friend so quickly."

"A-ah, thank you." Tsuna blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

"I EXTREMELY don't get what's going on, but okay!" yelled Ryohei. "Can Tsuna EXTREMELY come over to my house?"

"Oh, of course! Here, let me get some sandwiches for Tsuna to take over," Mama said with a blinding smile, before she turned on her heel and bustled into the kitchen.

Tsuna awkwardly walked down the stairs to where Ryohei was.

"Er, hello again," Tsuna mumbled.

"HI," said Ryohei back. "Your mother is EXTREMELY pretty!"

"Ah, thank you?" Tsuna said. Wait why was he hearing an echo of his voice? It sounded like it was coming from—

A spot near Ryohei's head. Tsuna had totally forgotten to close the chat window. Tsuna felt like an idiot. How in the world did he forget about the bright orange, glowing box that was floating in the air a few feet above his head? Either Tsuna was really stupid, or he had actually become accustomed to his gamer system. Now that was a scary thought.

Luckily for Tsuna's sanity, Mama chose that moment to go bustling back into the hallway carrying a small basket.

"Here you go!" she said cheerfully, offering Tsuna the basket. "Now, off you go."

Tsuna hung his head. Now he had no choice but to go back outside. He just got over killing that Fear-Wraith boss yesterday, Tsuna had been hoping for a lie-in. But it looked like it was not meant to be.

Forcing a smile, Tsuna went back outdoors, following Ryohei who was cheerfully punching the air.

Oh, well. At least it was nice outside, a bright sunny day. The air was full of the scent of freshly cut grass and life.

 _Hey, this might not be so bad,_ Tsuna thought to himself.

"Hey, Hibari-san! What are you EXTREMELY doing here?"

NOPE, no, no, not right now. Tsuna did not need freakin' Hibari showing up of all the people. Well, maybe if he looked the other way, Hibari wouldn't notice him and-

"Herbivore." Well, there went that plan.

"H-hello Hibari-san," Tsuna stuttered. "D-did you want something?"

Hibari glared at him. "What does the loud herbivore have that I do not?"

"W-what?" What on earth was Hibari talking about?

Hibari used a tonfa to point at Ryohei, who was cheerfully running around in circles. "What does this loud herbivore have that I don't?" he repeated.

To Tsuna's horror Hibari seemed genuinely upset. "I don't understand what you are talking about. Why are you asking me this?" Tsuna tried to say in a calming manner.

It didn't work. Hibari took a swing at Tsuna before growling out, "I have been going to dungeons with you for far more often than the loud herbivore. Why did he get a title and I didn't?"

"Wait, do you mean the Sun Guardian thing?" Tsuna asked.

"Yeah, it's EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled. "We can even talk to each other now whenever we want to, 'cause it has an EXTREME chat function!"

If Tsuna thought Hibari looked angry before, now he looked downright murderous.

"I-I don't know how it happened, I swear!" Tsuna said desperately. "Onii-san was telling me that I shouldn't listen to my father and that he'd punch him or take revenge or something-HIEEE!"

Tsuna dodged a tonfa strike. He skipped back a few steps in case Hibari decided to "train" him again, but Hibari was deep in thought.

Seeming to come to a decision, Hibari stood straight up, looked Tsuna in the eye and said, "Herbivore, I swear vengeance on your father."

"Wha-wha-whaaat?" Tsuna wailed. Why was Hibari telling him this?

Hibari glowered at Tsuna. "Herbivore, _I swear vengeance on your father_."

Again, what? All they were talking about was how Ryohei became Tsuna's Sun Guardian thing and-

Oh.

That was it.

Hibari wanted to be Tsuna's Sun Guardian too.

Now that Tsuna thought of it, Hibari was acting _jealous_ of all things. He actually, really wanted to be Tsuna's friend.

Hibari Kyouya _cared._

And maybe, if the Demon Kid of Namimori could consider Tsuna a friend, Tsuna could do the same for Hibari.

" **Congradulations!** Hibari Kyouya is now your **Cloud Guardian**!" Not Sun Guardian? Huh.

"Well?" Hibari growled.

"Er, does Cloud Guardian work? Because that's what you are now listed as," Tsuna told him.

Hibari looked slightly mollified. "Acceptable. Test it." They both ignored Ryohei's shouted "EXTREME"s at Tsuna's question.

"Test it? How-oh, right, the chat."

Tsuna pulled up his map and poked Hibari's new symbol, a cloud. Then he selected the chat function.

"Hello?" he tested.

"Good. Don't use this unless there is a fight." Then Hibari closed the chat and walked off.

Tsuna was left wondering if he'd completely misread the entire situation. What was the point of that if Hibari was just going to walk off?

But then, wasn't that what made Hibari Hibari? After all, despite the bloody training and brutal fights Hibari had forced Tsuna into, he also willingly fought by Tsuna's side. Before, nobody had done that.

So Tsuna decided to just be happy that he had a friend. As he and Ryohei continued along the path to Tsuna's house, Tsuna reflected on how unbelievable it was, just a few days ago, that Hibari could be Tsuna's friend.

…

"Kyoko! I EXTREMELY brought Tsuna here!" Ryohei yelled as he and Tsuna walked through the door.

"Ah, that's wonderful! Please, come in!" Kyoko said from somewhere inside the house.

Ryohei cheerfully took his shoes off and tramped into the kitchen. Tsuna followed a bit more cautiously. Kyoko was in the kitchen, setting out cupcakes. It… didn't seem like she was mad. Or maybe the cupcakes were only for Ryohei and not Tsuna? Tsuna wasn't sure.

"Ah, Kyoko?" Tsuna asked.

"Hmm?" she still sounded cheerful. That was a good sign, right?

"Are you al-alright?" Tsuna asked.

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" Kyoko seemed to be genuinely confused. Tsuna breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"So, you aren't upset with me for taking Onii-san to a fight?" Tsuna asked, just to be certain.

"Nope!" Kyoko said brightly. "Actually, that was part of what I wanted to talk to you about. You see," and here her eyes saddened a bit, "I forbade Nii-san to fight a long time ago, when he got really injured once. I thought it was for the best, but I selfishly didn't see how unhappy it made him. He's like Hibari-san, like you said, a fighter. After I talked to you, I realized that. So I let him go to a fight with you, and when he came back-" Here Kyoko paused, as if searching for a word she didn't know. "-he seemed… relaxed, almost. At peace. As though he had been bottling something up for the longest time and finally let it out. And you were the one that helped him there. I envied that, to be honest. I envied that you were the one to help him when I couldn't."

"Kyoko-chan…" Tsuna felt horrified. He didn't want to make her envious. He was just trying to be her friend!

Suddenly, Kyoko turned to him brightly and chirped, "So that's why I want to go to Nii-san's next fight with you!"

What. Tsuna blanched. Nononono this couldn't be happening. He had to say no-but she was looking at him so expectantly-he couldn't say no to Kyoko-distract her, quick!

"Um, actually today I was planning on finding the house of a new friend of mine. Her name's Haru!" Tsuna smiled brightly at Kyoko. Take the bait, take the bait, don't put yourself in danger…

"Really?" Kyoko said, cocking her had to one side.

"Yep. We're both learning how to how to knit!" Just keep smiling, hope she won't catch on…

"Oh, that sounds fun! Do you have the address?" Yes! She had taken the bait!

"I do." Tsuna fished the address out of his pocket and handed it to Kyoko.

She hummed as she took it and read it. "Oh, I know where this is!" Kyoko said. "It's on the way to the park!"

"Really? That's nice. Do you want to show me the way?" Tsuna asked.

Kyoko beamed brightly at him. "Sure, Tsuna-kun! Onii-san, do you want to come with us to visit Tsuna's friend?"

"That would be EXTREME!" came a yell from the backyard.

Kyoko hummed happily as she started gathering up cakes and putting them in a small basket. Meanwhile a white-haired blur came shooting in from outside.

"Who's your Extreme friend Tsuna?" Ryohei asked as he stopped in front of Tsuna.

"Ah, her name is Miura Haru. She's very nice."

"She sounds EXTREME!"

Tsuna sighed a little. He hoped Haru wouldn't mind meeting such an… extreme person as Ryohei. She seemed normal. Then again, Kyoko seemed normal too, but she had Ryohei for a brother.

…

Haru's house was a surprisingly short distance away.

Ryohei was on Tsuna's right as he punched the air. Kyoko, on the other hand, was on his left, and together they produced a steady stream of conversation that lasted the short while. Kyoko was just beginning to say that maybe she'd like to learn how to knit too as Tsuna pressed the doorbell.

They waited a few minutes, then Haru poked her head out the door. "Hahi! It's the cute boy! But who are the others?"

Tsuna blushed. "A-ah, hello, Haru-chan. This is Sasagawa Kyoko and Ryohei. I told them about meeting you, and then they wanted to meet you themselves soo…." Tsuna shrugged his shoulders awkwardly. "I hope that's okay," he finished lamely.

"That's fine! Haru loves meeting new people! Come in!"

Kyoko smiled at Haru as they walked in. "We brought cake to share!" she said. Haru's eyes sparkled. "Cake desu? Haru loves cake." She gave them all a bright smile. Kyoko and Tsuna smiled back. Ryohei was too busy punching the air to notice.

…

"Ooooh, this is delicious! Did Kyoko make this?" Haru asked as she bit into a piece of cake.

"Yes, I'm glad you enjoy it!" said Kyoko over her own piece of cake. "Ah! But Tsuna cooks very well too."

"Hahi! Really?" Haru turned wide eyes on Tsuna.

"A-a little bit," Tsuna said, feeling shy. He ducked his head.

"They're EXTREMELY good for healing!" yelled Ryohei, who had stopped punching about five minutes ago. Tsuna twitched.

"Eh? What do you mean Nii-san?" Kyoko asked.

"Nii-san-" Tsuna began, but he was cut off by Ryohei.

"Tsuna has this EXTREME ability to make life like a video game!" yelled Ryohei.

"Oh, like how Mom and Dad make it a race to brush our teeth?" Kyoko asked.

"No! Like a video game, with screens and everything! It's EXTREME!"

"Really?" the two girls asked in unison.

"Can we see?" Kyoko asked.

"Hahi! Please?" Haru begged.

"Do it to the EXTREME, Tsuna!" yelled Ryohei.

Tsuna crumpled. Three resolves against one was a no-brainer, especially with such an extreme one added.

"Create group First Time," he mumbled. "Invite Sasagawa Kyoko, Miura Haru and Sasagawa Ryohei."

"Hahi!" "Uuwaahh" "EXTREME!"

"This is always EXTREMELY Awesome Tsuna!" said Ryohei.

"This is so exciting, hahi!" said Haru as she poked the yes button. Kyoko nodded next to her as she did the same.

"You also have an EXTREME menu!" yelled Ryohei. The girls oohed and aahed over each new discovery, with Ryohei commenting.

"So is this what you use when fighting now?" Kyoko asked Ryohei.

"Yes!" Ryohei replied.

"Great! Then, Tsuna-kun, I'd like to go to one of those dungeons," Kyoko said as she turned to him. Inwardly Tsuna flailed. Beside him Ryohei choked on air.

"You can't! It it's EXTREMELY dangerous!" yelled Ryohei.

"The monsters will go after anyone, Kyoko, not just the fighters. You wouldn't be safe," Tsuna clarified, glad that someone was on his side. He didn't think he'd be able to say no if all three were for it.

In front of him, Haru puffed out her cheeks. "Why are you two allowed to go then?" she asked.

"Well, Onii-san knows how to fight," Tsuna defended. "You two don't."

"And you?" asked Kyoko, quite put out.

"I'd get murdered by Hibari-san if I didn't let him fight what he wanted to," Tsuna said.

Kyoko brightened right up. "Then Hibari-san will protect us!" she said.

 _No, he'll murder you_ , Tsuna thought. Out loud, he said "I think Hibari-san likes fighting more than protecting, and he's not too understanding when people prevent him from fighting. Spending time to make sure a group of people aren't hurt would probably count."

Haru puffed out her cheeks again. "Well that not very nice of him!" she declared.

 _Well, duh,_ Tsuna thought. But he tried to be understanding. Haru had clearly never Hibari. He still wasn't sure what had caused Kyoko to think that Hibari would protect them.

Kyoko's lip trembled. "I know I can't do much fighting," she started, and Tsuna was horrified to hear a tremor in her voice, "but I want to understand why you love fighting so much. I want to help you Nii-san!"

"Hahi! And Haru will stand by her new friend, Kyoko!" Haru added.

Tsuna traded a helpless glance with Ryohei. Neither of them wanted to put Kyoko or Haru in danger, but at the same time both were moved by such a heartfelt declaration.

Even so, Tsuna thought, wasn't that the same feeling that caused Tsuna to learn how to cook? Try to find a way to fight, so he wouldn't be a liability? Wasn't that all to help Hibari, and then Ryohei? Could he really deny that to Kyoko or Haru?

Tsuna swallowed and looked down. No, he couldn't. He'd spent far too much time wishing that he wasn't so useless to do that to Kyoko or Haru.

Tsuna swallowed again. Then he looked up at Ryohei. "Onii-san, I'll protect them. And," he added, when Ryohei still looked upset, "I'll see if I can find something to convince Hibari to help."

Ryohei still looked upset, but he raised his fists and said "I'll extremely protect them too."

Kyoko and Haru cheered. "But," Tsuna said, "I want you to bring something to defend yourself with, and if we tell you to run, run."

They both nodded. "Haru has hockey sticks we can use!" added Haru.

"You go get those while I call Hibari," Tsuna said. He took a fortifying breath; he wasn't looking forward to this.

"Hibari-san," he began as the chat came online. "Onii-san's sister, Kyoko, and a friend, Haru, want to do a dungeon, but they aren't fighters. What can I do for you to agree to help protect them?" Tsuna had a feeling trying to trick Hibari or beating around the bush would only end in pain, so he tried to be as straightforward as possible.

"I don't like crowding herbivores," Hibari said. Tsuna winced.

"I know," he replied. Hibari was silent for a minute. Tsuna was about to apologize to Hibari for wasting his time when Hibari said "I'm picking the dungeon. And start bring hamburger steak with your snacks."

Tsuna let out his breath with a woosh. "I can do that," he said. "Thank you, Hibari-san."

There was a moment of silence at the other end before Hibari sort of grunted at him. Then Hibari closed the link with a "Meet me behind the tailor's shop in the older district."

"We're going to the old district!" Tsuna announced. The girls cheerfully agreed, but Ryohei still seemed subdued. As Kyoko and Haru happily chatted together in front of them, Tsuna tugged Ryohei down so Ryohei was leaning towards him.

"I kind of don't want other people to know about the gamer thing, okay?" Tsuna whispered in Ryohei's ear. "Because then there might be more people like Kyoko and Haru who want to join in without understanding. So can you keep it a secret?"

"I EXTREMELY will, Tsuna," he whispered back. "I'm also EXTREMELY sorry for telling."

Tsuna could tell. Ryohei looked absolutely miserable. "It's okay," Tsuna said as he patted Ryohei's back. "I'll help protect them," he repeated his promise.

"I know," Ryohei said seriously. "Because you're an EXTREME man, Tsuna."

Tsuna found himself smiling back at Ryohei for that complement.

…

In no time at all, Tsuna and the others had reached the tailor shop. Unsurprisingly, Hibari was already there waiting for them. He detached from the wall as Tsuna added him to the party and walked around the girls, who smiled at him.

"Herbivores," Hibari said as he reached his judgement of them.

Kyoko just cocked her head at him while Haru immediately frowned and demanded, "What did you call me!?"

Tsuna, sensing a storm forming, quickly intervened. "That's just what he calls people who aren't good fighters, or annoy him," he explained.

Haru still looked unhappy, but she didn't make a fuss, for which Tsuna was glad. He had no idea what he would do if that happened.

"So, everyone ready?" Tsuna asked. Everyone but Hibari said yes. Hibari just opened the door and walked in. Tsuna inwardly wailed about Hibari's manners, but walked in after them. Everyone else followed suit.

For a moment it was dark in the room, but that quickly disappeared when Tsuna pulled out a lit Molotov.

Long, silky white strands fell from the ceiling, drapping themselves over dusty furniture and connecting corners. Actually, Tsuna couldn't even see the ceiling, just a mash of white. There also weren't any monsters that Tsuna could see. Even so, he said "Everyone stay together. We can't tell when we'll be attacked."

The girls nodded, eyes wide. Hibari gave an irritated grunt, and hit one of the white ropes hanging down in the center of the room. It shivered.

Suddenly, a brilliant orange "Danger!" sign popped up in the middle of Tsuna's vision. "Everyone, away from the center!" he yelled as he threw his lit Molotov into the center of the room. Then he tackled Haru and Kyoko. One of them squeaked as they fell to the floor. No sooner had they hit the floor when the biggest, most dangerous spider Tsuna had ever seen dropped down where Hibari had been a minute before. It let out what sounded like a scream as it hit Tsuna's Molotov aoe.

Hibari darted forward and destroyed it with three quick smashes. Then he leapt back as another spider threw itself down the white rope (web, Tsuna realized) into the puttering out aoe. Tsuna quickly threw another Molotov, but it was like a stopper had been pulled out of a bottle; more and more spiders began to pour out from above.

Tsuna could just keep throwing Molotovs, but he'd run out soon. Furthermore, he had no way of knowing how many spiders were there, as he couldn't see above him. Unless…

"Onii-san, throw this up there," Tsuna yelled as he handed Ryohei a burning Molotov and pointed at where the spiders were coming from.

"EXTREME!" Ryohei screamed as he threw the Molotov with all his strength at the dark spot.

Perhaps it was Ryohei's spectacular throw, the level Tsuna had gained in crafting, or just that the webs were particularly flammable, but with a spectacular boom the entire area caught fire. Tsuna could see dozens of spiders writhing in pain, and a few white pods bursting with gooey dead baby spiders oozing out. But it was in the furthest, darkest, highest part of the ceiling that made dread pool in Tsuna's stomach. Up there was a massive, shadowy spider that looked disturbingly like a boss monster.

One of the girls screamed.

Tsuna's head turned so fast it could've been considered whiplash. The two girls had cornered a small, burning spider and where hitting it repeatedly with their hockey sticks. Tsuna ran over and stomped it dead.

"Stay near the door!" he ordered them. Then he ran back into the fray.

For all that there seemed to be so many spiders, Hibari and Ryohei did a decent job of keeping them contained. Tsuna opted to conserve his Molotovs and just attack with his hands and feet. He thought that the Molotovs would be best used against the boss spider.

There were fewer spiders now, a part of Tsuna's mind noted. Ryohei's boxing gloves, Tsuna's shoes and Hibari's tonfas were strong enough to withstand any bites, but their arms weren't.

One of the smaller spiders jumped up and bit Ryohei on the shoulder. Hibari destroyed it a second later but Tsuna saw that Ryohei had gained a poison effect. Tsuna hopped backwards and, instead of pulling out a Molotov, pulled out one of the healing things from the rat dungeon. He jammed it into Ryohei's shoulder and was rewarded with the poison sign disappearing. Good, Tsuna didn't think his cooking could heal that.

And then, suddenly there weren't any more spiders. Tsuna and the others paused, uncertain what to do now.

Then they heard a long, sharp series of clicks start. "Move!" Tsuna yelled.

He, Ryohei and Hibari threw themselves out of the way as the biggest spider Tsuna had ever seen dropped down. Even scarier was the fact that it had a female torso and head where the spider head should have been.

The female upper half was dressed in a traditional kimono in white and black. It would have been beautiful if the kimono wasn't streaked with dirt and other materials. And if the thing's black, knotted hair didn't fall lankly over it like pieces of tangled rope.

Tsuna tensed on his feet as he took in the "Spider Queen, LV 34" title floating over the thing's head. So this was the boss.

He glanced at his companions. Both Hibari and Ryohei had serious expressions on their faces, and the girls were watching on with wide eyes from the door. He nodded to the older boys and they positioned themselves so that they covered the way to the girls. Tsuna was further towards the back of the shop, behind the thing.

Inwardly, Tsuna cursed. With his current position, he couldn't risk throwing a Molotov without hitting one or both of his friends.

That was when the thing moved. It threw itself at Hibari at the speed of a bird diving. Tsuna would have been impressed if he wasn't so terrified. Luckily, Ryohei was there to help deflect the Spider Queen, but at the speed it was moving nothing they could do would be able to really hurt it. They needed to slow it down, but how?

Tsuna glanced around the room. He could bash the monster over its head with a piece of furniture, but he didn't think that would even hit. Tsuna needed to hurt its legs, tie it down somehow. Wait! The webs!

Tsuna grabbed ahold of one of the low-hanging threads and yanked. With a tearing noise it ripped free from the mess. The sudden slack made Tsuna fall to his knees, but he scrambled to his feet and ran towards the boss monster.

"Onii-san! Help me tie down its legs!" he yelled as he threw one end of the rope to Ryohei.

With one of Ryohei's characteristic screams of "EXTREME!" they worked together to run around the monster, entangling its legs in its own thread. When its legs were completely trapped, Tsuna grabbed the other end of the web and tied it together. He didn't know too many knots, but he could tie his shoes so that's how he tied it.

"Everyone, kill it while it's trapped!" Tsuna yelled. He began to kick at the thing with all his strength. Hibari and Ryohei joined him. Even Kyoko and Haru ran over to help.

The Spider Queen thrashed once more and then it died, poofing away to become nothing more than a kimono, several spools of white thread, and a bottle that Tsuna, using observe, discovered contained poison.

After everything had been put away, Tsuna started treating Ryohei and Hibari. Sometime during the final fight Hibari had been poisoned. Tsuna frowned as he applied one of the special healing items. If this was going to be a regular thing, Tsuna needed to read up on antidotes. Even though they did have a large stack of healing items built up, they could easily run out quickly. Also…

Tsuna looked guiltily at Hibari and Ryohei's damaged clothing. If the past few dungeons were any indicator, the two would be running through a lot of clothing, and while Tsuna was pretty certain they could afford it, he didn't want to put either Ryohei or Hibari through that. So, also on his list was learning how to mend clothing.

Lastly, he looked at the two girls. Tsuna felt that they really shouldn't have been here. Ryohei and Hibari were one thing, both of them were better at fighting then Tsuna was, but this was probably the first time either of the girls had seen combat.

Kyoko looked up and saw Tsuna looking at here. She gave him a hesitant smile, and then got up and walked over to Ryohei.

"Onii-san?" she asked quietly.

Ryohei flinched and looked away. Kyoko frowned and bit her lip. Then she sat down next to him. "I know that I haven't always been the best sister," she started, holding a hand up before Ryohei could protest.

"But I have always tried to protect you and to make sure you are happy. And seeing you today…" Kyoko gestured at the air. "… You were serious, but you were happy. So, I'm going to do my best to protect that happiness, okay? You don't have to be ashamed of the part of yourself. Because… because I'll be there to help!" she declared as she hugged him. Tsuna thought that he had never seen such a brilliant smile on Ryohei's face before.

"Hahi! What a passion-filled fight!" declared Haru. Tsuna started and whipped around to face her, startled. Haru gave everyone a brilliant smile. "Everyone was amazing!" she chirped.

Tsuna just sighed. He was glad neither of the girls seemed unhappy, but was it really too much to ask for them to realize that was just a little scary?!

…

Tsuna walked to the meeting place for the next dungeon run. He'd seen both Ryohei and Hibari in the few days it had been since the spider dungeon fight, and both seemed to be well. Ryohei hadn't mentioned Kyoko either, so she was probably okay too. That was good

Tsuna broke out into a light jog. All he had to do was get around the corner and…

Wait what? Standing with the two boys were Kyoko and Haru, each holding a naginata. They all spotted Tsuna at the same time.

"Good Morning, Tsuna-kun." "Hahi! Tsuna-kun!" "EXTREME!" "Herbivore."

Tsuna could only gape at them. Just what was going on here!? Tsuna thought with a touch of hysteria.

Kyoko and Haru noticed that he was staring at their new weapons. "Tsuna-kun! Me and Kyoko were moved by your passionate attack!" started Haru. "We were so moved, we decided to take up arms ourselves, as Battle-Sisters!"

Beside her, Kyoko nodded brightly. She hefted up her naginata and cheered, "Go go Battle-Sisters!"

Tsuna felt like sinking to his knees and sobbing. Why, Kyoko? Why, Haru? But if he did that, Hibari would think that he needed additional "training" and bite him to death. So he numbly let the others tug him along to go on another insane, deadly dungeon run. Why was this life?

Of course, it wouldn't be his life for long. After all, he had forgotten a very simple thing: when you involved Sasagawa Kyoko, you made room for her best friend, Kurokawa Hana.

….

 **AN:** I kinda hate school right now. It's been very busy lately, so don't expect another update until after the AP tests, and probably graduation too. As for leveling, I'm going to try to keep it realistic enough that Tsuna and friends won't just walk over any opponent they see, but also won't just have to go through completely unrealistic training right before a match just so that they could have a chance at surviving.


	5. Kurokawa Hana

Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.

Tsuna thought that Kurokawa Hana was scary. Everyone had heard about the one incident back in kindergarden, where one of the bigger kids had made Kyoko cry. Nobody knew what Hana had whispered in his ear, but he burst into tears and stayed far away after that.

So Tsuna was unsurprisingly afraid when Mama had called him downstairs to tell him that Hana wanted to talk to him. Tsuna didn't want to, but Mama told him that that would be rude. Then there was nothing else to be done but wait for the tea to be ready.

Tsuna smiled nervously at Hana. Hana stared stonily back. "Sawada-san," she began. "I left a week ago from a Kyoko that disliked violence and had no interest in fighting. I come back to find that she has suddenly developed a fighting team with a complete stranger, and is dedicated to this 'dungeon' game with her monkey of an older brother, the Demon of Namimori and you." She paused to sip her tea. "I'll admit; I didn't think much about you. You're normally quiet, ridiculously clumsy and quite possibly the one of the stupidest people I have ever met." Tsuna flinched and looked down. He knew he was bad, but hearing all his problems spoken of so casually still hurt.

Hana studied his reaction. Then she put her tea cup down and gave Tsuna the scariest smile he had ever seen. "So, are you going to explain this? Or will I have to get _creative_."

Tsuna crumbled.

…

"…" Hana stared at the screen in front of her. Her left eye was twitching ever so slightly. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled sharply.

" _So_. Let me get this straight. Kyoko-chan is convinced that she must become a healer to help her older brother, and as a part of that she must participate in these dungeon runs and _kill MONSTERS_?!"

Tsuna winced and nodded.

Hana scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, I'll see if I can talk her out of it," she muttered under her breath.

…

She wasn't. In fact, Kyoko seemed even more determined to continue being a "Battle-Sister" than before. She also became determined to convert Hana as well.

"It's scary at first," Kyoko said, "but then you realize that it's being a superhero! With your friends and everything!"

Tsuna wasn't so certain that seeing the gamer ability as a superpower was a good thing. Unlike the TV shows, people could get really hurt here, like Hibari. From the look Hana gave Kyoko, it seemed like she thought the same.

"But don't you get hurt?" Hana asked, quietly.

"Well, yes," Kyoko said. "But they can be healed. Ah! That reminds me. Tsuna-kun, food can heal people, right?"

Tsuna started when he heard his name. "Um, yes? Th-that's why I've been learning to cook," he replied.

Kyoko clapped her hands. "That's great. I've always thought having a cooking group would be fun. Won't you join Haru-chan and I? We can make healing food for the dungeons."

"A-ah, sure? B-but shouldn't you be thinking about what Hana said? I-I mean, this is really, really dangerous, and I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"Exactly," Hana jumped in. "You were really unhappy when your brother was hurt. What if that happened to you?"

"But that's why I'm learning how to heal people!" Kyoko chirped. "Anyways, I think you're being too hard. I bet if you just went on a trip with us, you'd realize how fun it was! Our next outing is in two days. Come join! Tsuna, let's get together tomorrow to cook for the trip, okay?"

Tsuna and Hana glanced at each other. It was clear that Kyoko wasn't going to be persuaded to change her views. For better or for worse, they were in this together now.

…

"Dang it, dang it, dang it," Hana said as she paced in the street. Tsuna stared at her. Those sounded like bad words that Mama told him never to say. Hana had to be really upset. He was kinda upset too. If Kyoko didn't realize it was dangerous, then she might do something silly and get herself hurt. Like, like, she could get bitten by a spider and be poisoned. Tsuna didn't know what he'd do if she got hurt.

"Tsuna," Hana said sharply. Tsuna jumped. It appeared that while he had been worrying about Kyoko, Hana had made up her mind.

"Tsuna," she repeated, pinning Tsuna with a look that was not quite a glare but was close. "You are going to tell me everything you've learned about this game. _Everything_."

Tsuna gulped.

…

"So let me get this straight: You can use this "observe" ability to see how anything affects you in the game?" Hana asked.

"I-I never thought about it like that," Tsuna admitted. When Hana gave him a glare he squeaked and nodded furiously.

"And you never thought to look at foods and see which heals the most?"

No, he hadn't, Tsuna realized with a sinking feeling. Honestly, he was so _stupid._ How could he not realize that? He really was-

"Hey!" Hana said. Tsuna blinked at her. Hana sighed and pinched her nose again. "Look," she started. "You're a bit of a stupid monkey, but you're the smartest monkey of the lot I'm working with, and apparently you're the only one that an ounce of sense. So stop looking so upset with yourself and help me. Being mad with yourself doesn't do a bit of good."

Tsuna sniffed and nodded at her. Then he rubbed his eyes, realizing that they were a little wet.

"Good," Hana said sharply. "Now, let's use your observe ability to examine the food in the kitchen. I'll make a chart of what gives what health."

"'Kay," Tsuna said softly.

…

The kitchen was interesting. By far the best health food was some leftover's from last night's dinner. The pastries Mama had in the cupboard were decent too. But what was more interesting was when Tsuna looked at the sliced bread.

"It's listed as an in-gree-di-ant," Tsuna said. "And next to the in-gree-di-ant title is a thing that says basic inside these moon things."

"Like this?" Hana asked, drawing out the symbol.

"Yes!"

"Those are parenthesis signs. I think that it means that the bread is considered a basic ingredient."

"O-oh. Er… What does that mean?"

"It probably means it's a very simple or common ingredient. Or that the quality is basic."

"O-okay…"

"You don't get it, do you?"

"No…"

It took a while for Tsuna to get it. Tsuna almost felt he would have gotten it quicker if Hana didn't fluster him so much, but that seemed rude. Still, they completed their survey of the kitchen.

Hana looked at her list with interest.

"Huh," she said. "It looks like the completed food is worth more health than just the raw stuff."

She tapped the notebook to her chin. "Tsuna, you have money, right?"

"Y-yes?"

"Good. We're going to the store."

"Hiiee?"

Hana shot Tsuna a glare. "One kitchen is good, but I need to know more. Logically, the next place to go would be a store, so I can compare food there as well. We'll also be looking at First Aid stuff and anything that looks useful, okay?"

"Y-yes!"

…

Tsuna had never been to such a big store without Mama before. The massive aisles and brightly colored stacks seemed so much bigger when he was with Hana. Not that Hana let him stare for long.

"Come on," Hana said as she dragged Tsuna along. "We'll start by comparing the breads with the pastries. If I'm right, the pastries should give more health than the bread, and some of the pricier bread will be better than basic."

Tsuna just nodded. It wasn't worth arguing, even though his arm was starting to hurt a little from where Hana was gripping it.

It turned out that some of the pricier bread _was_ better than basic. Some of the loaves of bread labeled as "ar-tis-an" or "or-gan-ic" was listed as "Good" quality.

It was towards the end of the bread section that Tsuna got two new pop-ups. "[Observe] Leveled Up!" "Your [Observe] skill has reached level 10! Your [Observe] will now tell you basic background info!"

"U-um Hana?" Tsuna started.

"Yes?"

"It says I can now see basic back-ground info about things…?"

Hana went still. Then she snarled "Dang it!"

"HIEE! I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Tsuna cried.

"No, no, calm down. I said CALM DOWN!" Hana said when Tsuna kept whimpering.

"I'm not angry with you," Hana explained. "I'm just frustrated because now we'll have to redo everything and we only have so much time before there's another dungeon run."

"O-oh."

Hana sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let my temper take ahold of me and scare you like that. I'm just-" She waved her hands in the air for a few seconds. "I'm scared and frustrated and- and they don't even get it." Hana put her hands down, a quiver in her voice. "They think it's just a game, that they can't get hurt. A-and I've always been the one to be responsible and make sure everything is okay, but I- I can't do that here, it's too big a-and I- I don't know what to do."

Tsuna, on impulse, grabbed Hana and hugged her. She stiffened for a moment, then reached out and grabbed him tightly. They stood there for a moment, then she pushed him away. Tsuna let her.

Hana took a shuddering breath, then put on a fierce face.

"Okay. Let's do this," she said. But as she turned toward the beginning of the bread aisle, she paused and murmured, "Thank you."

In front of Tsuna a window popped up. "Kurokawa Hana is now your friend!"

..

It turned out that the background info didn't really add much, although Hana did make a kinda happy snarl when this one brand mentioned it was made in illegally dirty factories. That bread was the only loaf with a "Poor" quality.

Other than that, it seemed more complicated foods did, in fact, grant higher health, but they were also more expensive. Hana and Tsuna pooled their money to buy a loaf of the "Poor" quality bread, and a loaf of the "Good" quality breads. Hana told him that they would take several pieces of bread from each loaf, plus one of Mama's loaves, and toast them to see how well the quality affected the health given.

When Tsuna and Hana got to the medical section, they were quickly overwhelmed. Sure, bandages were simple to understand, but a lot of the things had really specific uses, and penalties for using them incorrectly. In this case, Tsuna actually knew more than Hana did. After some discussion, Hana decided to join Tsuna and the other girls for lessons on First Aid, and that they should both buy basic First Aid kits with extra bandages. They'd come back later once Hana was able to better see what they would need and had had a chance to grill Grandma on what was used for what.

Then they went home.

..

Tsuna got out the old toaster he liked to use while Hana examined her [Cooking] skill level.

"Hey Sawada-san, what's your cooking skill at?" she asked him.

"U-um… level nine!"

"Huh, I'm at level five. We should both cook to see how much level affects health as well."

"Okay… u-um Kurokawa-san? 

"Hmm?"

"Y-you can call me Tsuna, you know."

Hana looked surprised for a moment, then smiled. "Tsuna-kun then. And you can call me Hana."

"Sure!" Tsuna smiled back at her. Then he turned to the toaster and started toasting bread.

..

Hana and Tsuna examined the results of their experiment.

"So," Hana started. "Right now it seems that quality and level have equal effects on how much health a food item gives you."

Tsuna nodded. That seemed to make sense.

Hana seemed deep in thought for a minute. Then she muttered, "This is going to ruin my appetite for dinner."

"Huh?"

Hana turned to Tsuna. "What toppings do you have?" she asked. At Tsuna's confused look, she explained.

"What do you have that you can put on toast, like butter, jam, anything like that?"

"O-oh! Let me show you!"

Tsuna and Hana grabbed several jars and containers and brought them over to the table. Then they spent the next couple of minutes smearing different spreads over their toast. The different flavors of jam only had minor differences in health given, but butter had the lowest health given and cream cheese the highest.

Then Tsuna got the bright idea to put all the spreads on a single piece of toast. The end result was… interesting.

"FrankenToast," Tsuna read aloud for Hana. "Food Item. A ton of things on a piece of toast. Looks disgusting. Probably tastes disgusting. +10 HP"

Hana snorted. "Nice, but can you imagine Hibari eating that?"

Tsuna blanched as Hana snickered at him. Hibari would murder Tsuna if Tsuna tried to give him that.

Still… "What are we going to do with all this," Tsuna gestured at the food.

Hana shrugged. "Eat it, I guess."

Tsuna made a face. He didn't mind toast, but there was a lot of toast.

"Maybe we could feed it to the birds?" he suggested. "I'd feel bad throwing it out."

Hana opened her mouth, but then shut it, looking thoughtful. "Hey Tsuna-kun, do you think that if birds will eat this, monsters might as well? We could use it to bait traps."

Tsuna was surprised. That hadn't occurred to him. "That's a really good idea Hana-chan!" he said.

They put all the toast into baggies and cleaned up.

As it came time for Hana to go, she hesitated. "Tsuna-kun?"

"Yes?"

Hana bit her lip. "Can I borrow some money?" she asked. Then she flinched and looked away. "I'll pay you back, but if this is something that keeps on happening, I'll need a weapon. I can ask Dad to enroll me in archery classes, but I'll have to buy all the equipment I want to use at places other than the studio. So can I?"

Tsuna blinked, startled. Hana continued after a second. "Don't get me wrong, I hate owing people-" "How much do you need?" Tsuna asked.

Hana blinked at him, then mumbled, "I don't know."

Tsuna opened his account. Each boss left money, so he had about 10,000 yen now.

"Is ten thousand okay?" he asked.

Hana choked. "That's way too much!" she shouted. Then her brows furrowed. "I'll borrow 6,000. That should be enough combined with my own money."

Tsuna handed her the money. "Thanks," she said as she dropped it into her pocket. Then she looked up at him. "Stay safe," Hana said.

Then they both said their goodbyes and Hana left.

..

The next day Tsuna told the others about what Hana had found out. Mama, after finding that the girls wanted to make a cooking group, cheerfully volunteered to help. In fact, Tsuna had never seen her so happy.

He wasn't certain how he felt about that. On one hand, it meant more time with Kyoko and learning how to cook, and Mama was happy. On the other hand, it seemed to encourage Kyoko and Haru that participating in dangerous monster hunts was a good idea.

When Mama wasn't listening, or was off doing something else, Tsuna explained to the others what he and Hana had figured out the other day. Haru and Kyoko both decided that that meant they needed to get super good at cooking, as soon as possible.

"Hahi! Then we could like samurai wives, healing our husbands and protecting them at the same time!" Haru said.

"Naginata were used by samurai wives after all!" said Kyoko.

"Ah, speaking of weapons," Tsuna hesitantly started. "Hana said she'd look into learning archery."

"Really? That's wonderful!" said Kyoko, Haru nodding vigorously next to her. "I hope she realizes how fun this is soon."

"U-um, I think she's learning because she's worried about you. She wants to protect you, so she's trying to learn more about fighting." Tsuna tried.

"I'm not worried, I have you, Nii-san and Hibari-san protecting me," said Kyoko.

"And Battle-Sisters fight together!" Haru added.

Tsuna gave up trying to convince the two girls to be more careful.

..

The day of the dungeon run was hot and muggy. The forecast said it was likely to rain in the afternoon, so Tsuna and the others decided to meet in the morning. The others were cheerful, but Tsuna noted that Hana had bags under her eyes.

"You okay?" he asked.

Hana took a deep breath. "I will be," she said like it was both a wish and a promise. She had with her a bow on her back and a baseball bat. "For inside places, when I can't aim," she said when Tsuna looked at her. "Smart," said Tsuna in return.

They went to the spider dungeon first. Hana interrogated Tsuna about what was likely to happen on the way there. Tsuna tried his best to remember, but he couldn't remember all of it.

"How many silk sacs were there on the ground?"

"I don't remember exactly… it was more than one or two, but there weren't a lot."

Hana nodded distractedly, brow furrowed.

"Hana?" Tsuna asked.

"I'm trying to think of a strategy," she explained.

"O-oh, well, I'm not sure if that will be helpful right now, because we're here."

Hana looked up, blinked and paled. Then she took a deep breath and stood up tall.

"Tsuna? Could you call the others? I'd like to share my strategy," she said, and her voice was impressively steady.

Tsuna nodded. "Hey everyone!" he yelled. "Hana has an idea!"

Ryohei, Kyoko and Haru all smiled and headed over. Hibari… kinda rolled his eyes but headed over too.

"Okay, so," Hana started. "It sounds like what we have is a hole in which a bunch of monsters spawn and then a few monsters spawn on the outside, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, so Hibari-san and Ryohei are our best fighters and Tsuna has all the area attacks, so they should take care of the main swarm like you did before. Kyoko, Haru and I will search the surroundings, take out the others. If we need help, we'll yell for either Tsuna or Ryohei. Tsuna and I both have first aid kits, so someone with a kit is with each group. Will that work?"

Everyone nodded, save for Hibari who just waved an acknowledgment. "Hahi! What a good plan!" said Haru.

"Okay, so that's it," Hana trailed off, clearly uncertain what to do now.

"A-alright!" Tsuna said. "Let's do this!"

Ryohei and the girls cheered. Hibari and Hana just readied their weapons.

Then as a group they headed in.

..

It was certainly more organized, Tsuna thought. Now that Hibari and Ryohei knew what to expect, they didn't seem to have any trouble. Hana had screamed the first time she had seen a spider, but quickly shook off her fright and killed it. The girls were watching each other's backs, and didn't seem to have any trouble.

Tsuna absentmindedly noted that he'd need to start preparing more Molotovs as he readied another. A spider went flying towards his face. He flinched, but punched it hard enough to send it flying into the flames.

Across from him, the circle of fire lit Hibari's face up from below, making him seem almost like a demon sent to torment all who opposed him. Ryohei didn't seem any friendlier either.

Ouch. Another spider just bit Ryohei on the ankle. It died even quicker, and the pain just seemed to make Ryohei even fiercer.

"Tsuna!" Hana yelled.

Tsuna met Hibari's eyes and stepped away, running to the girls.

They were fighting a massive, swollen spider.

The girls were doing their best to keep it at bay, but it was much thicker than what they could pierce with their wooden naginatas.

''Clear a path!" Tsuna yelled. "Let Hana shoot it!" He readied a Molotov.

Hana nodded and nocked an arrow. As soon as she had a clear shot, she let the arrow loose.

It hit the spider right on the abdomen, and it thrashed about. Then what made it so thick became apparent.

Thousands of tiny baby spiders crawled off their mother and headed towards the girls and Tsuna. Tsuna threw the Molotov and yelled "Stomp on them!"

The girls and Tsuna jumped on the spider babies that survived the flames. The spiders crunched underneath their feet.

"Don't forget their mother!" yelled Hana, as she let loose another arrow. Kyoko tried to hit the massive arachnid, but was too busy keeping the spiders from crawling up her leg.

Tsuna picked up a discarded stool and threw it at the mother. It screamed and finally died.

Then Tsuna helped the girls kill the last few tiny spiders, then headed back to the center just in time to see the boss drop down.

He and Ryohei worked together like before to kill the queen together. It almost got loose a few times but it finally died just like the others.

The group took a few deep breaths in the violent end of the battle.

Tsuna looked over at Hana. "You okay?"

Hana nodded, gasping. She held up a finger for a few seconds while her breathing slowed. "Okay," she said. "Next time, we should all wear pants and boots. Make it harder for something to go after your legs."

"It's a good idea," Tsuna said as the others looked like they might protest. "Onii-san, at least one spider bit you- speaking of which, here-" he handed Ryohei a healing potion to remove the poison effect "-and Kyoko and Haru, I don't think you liked the spiders crawling on your legs." The girls shuddered and nodded, but Haru still seemed a bit mulish.

"Haru wants to look cute fighting," she said.

Tsuna took a breath and thought. "Um, you want to be a designer when you grow up, right?" he asked.

Haru nodded.

"Then, do you think you could design an outfit that's cute and practical?"

"Hahi! Sure!"

"I'll help too!" said Kyoko.

"I'll be on hand to ensure the "practical" part," said Hana.

Tsuna nodded. "Okay. Good. Anything else?"

There was a round of no's. "Alright. If you're injured, eat something. We'll leave in about five minutes."

As everyone turned to their tasks, Tsuna was distracted by a pop-up. "Due to repeatedly showing good qualities and by completing the requirements, you have earned the Passive Effect [Leader]. [Leader] requires you to have at least five followers and show leadership in the field. With five followers, [Leader] grants you +20 rep with all followers, +(# of followers up to 50) rep with allies and -(# of followers up to 50) rep with enemies."

B-but that made no sense! That would mean that _Hibari Kyouya_ was a follower, and Hibari followed no one. The game must be mistaken. And where did it get off calling his friends followers? They were friends, that's it!

Tsuna ignored the little voice that reminded him of all the times that Hibari had listened to him and that friends could be followers at the same time. The game was mistaken and that was the end of it.

He was broken from his thoughts by a muffled rustle from the corner of the room.

While everyone else was distracted he walked over to where he heard the rustling. Something small was moving under a sheet of webbing. He pulled back a corner and looked into four dark eyes.

The black spider underneath the webbing was small and black, about the size of one of Tsuna's hands. It clicked its mandibles in an almost panicked way and it backed up against a wall. Tsuna raised a foot to stomp it flat but… it just seemed so pitiful. It was trembling in the same way he did when the bullies backed him in an alley. Tsuna put the foot down.

"Oh?" said Hibari from behind him. Tsuna whirled around.

"So one survived?" Hibari raised a tonfa.

"Ah-ah, wait!" Tsuna said.

"What?" asked Hibari in a bored tone of voice.

"Ah, um…" Tsuna looked at the others who had noticed what was going on. Kyoko, Haru and Ryohei all seemed mildly curious, but Hana looked concerned- _Hana!_

"Hana was wondering if spiders could be lured with food into traps. We can use this one as a test subject!" Tsuna gave Hibari a brilliant terrified smile.

Hibari looked at Tsuna for a moment then shrugged and put the tonfa down.

Tsuna breathed an internal sigh of relief. Then he turned around and pulled a baggie from his inventory. He broke off a piece of the bread inside and placed it about half a meter away from the spider.

The spider hesitated. "Maybe we're too close?" Hana suggested. "We are crowding it after all." Everyone moved back a few steps.

The spider slowly stepped forward, then grabbed the morsel and scuttled back to its place against the wall.

"It's kinda cute," Kyoko decided.

Both Tsuna and Hana shot her incredulous looks, but Haru nodded. They turned back to the spider, who had finished the bite. It was still in the corner but it didn't seem to be trembling so badly.

Tsuna offered the spider a second piece, and the spider didn't hesitate to grab it. It didn't go back to the wall either.

This time, when Tsuna offered the spider a piece of toast, he held it out. The spider was hesitant, but once Tsuna didn't move for a few seconds it scurried forward and nibbled it in his hands. Tsuna… Tsuna might have been a bit enchanted. Just a little.

Then when the spider was done, it just short of… rubbed against his hand, like a cat. It was surprisingly soft.

" **Congratulations!** You have tamed [Baby Jumping Spider]! [Baby Jumping Spider] is now your pet! Name [Baby Jumping Spider] [Y/N]?

Tsuna choked. "Tsuna?" asked Hana, worriedly.

"It says I tamed the spider. It says it's now my pet. It's asking-" Tsuna choked back a hysterical laugh "-if I want to name it!"

The groups looked at the spider that was now nuzzling Tsuna's hand.

"You could call it Kuro, because it's black," Kyoko suggested. Again, Hana and Tsuna shot her incredulous looks. Then Tsuna sighed and covered his face with the hand not being crawled on by a spider.

"Okay," Tsuna decided. "Name pet Kuro."

"Your [Baby Jumping Spider] is now named **Kuro**! Kuro is at LV 1."

"Herbivores. This had better not stop us from going to the other dungeons," Hibari said.

Tsuna sighed again then picked up Kuro and placed it on his shoulder. "It won't," he told Hibari.

At least, he hoped it wouldn't cause problems. Of course, that meant that at the next dungeon they went to Kuro jumped off his shoulder and onto the face of his attacker.

Hibari thoroughly approved.

…

 **AN** : So, good news is that I got into a good college. Bad news is that I got into a good college, and good colleges require a lot of work. This story is neither abandoned nor dead, but I'm not making any promises for when it will be updated again.

Now, about this chapter: I realize that Kyoko and Haru are not exactly present in a good light. To be truthful though, these girls are nine when their fourteen-year-old selves ignored almost all mafia on-goings despite meeting Dino's famigalia, Mafia Land, and the Ring Battles, THEN left a safe place unarmed while there was an entire mafia famigalia trying to kill them. They've got good hearts, and honestly I'm going to try to give them more power then what they had in the manga/anime, but they NEED to sort out their priorities.

As for Hana, my personal headcanon is that she witnessed a mildly traumatic event as a small child that made her realize how powerless and dangerous children are, and that's why she hates them so much. Let me know what you think!

Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV 6

HP 88

FP 70

Strength 10

Constitution 14

Agility 10

Intelligence 8

Wisdom 14

Luck 4


	6. Kuro, Training and Errant Yokai

Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.

Also, I figured I should mention: a good part of this fic, the fic not the chapter, was born from a desire to mess with Reborn's head in retaliation for all the times his messed with ours. The other part was born from the desire to read a gamer fic that's "realistic" with character development and not just MC becoming OP and curbstomping people/dealing with silly situations. No offence to the other gamer fics, I'm a big fan of the silly and comedic ones, but it has so much potential if it's done seriously, and I want to see what I can do.

Oh, there will be silly parts (plenty), and there will be curbstomping (some), but I don't want the focus to just be silly parts and curbstomping. So let me know how I'm doing, if you think Tsuna's becoming too OP, or if there's a topic you think would be worth exploring! Just FYI, I'm planning on ending this fic at the end of the Varia arc, so Byakuran, the Simon Famigalia and the Ring Battles will not play a part.

…

Tsuna wasn't sure how he got through that battle without accidentally killing Kuro. It definitely meant that he couldn't fling Molotovs everywhere, because Kuro apparently didn't care if he got hurt. Tsuna definitely had burns on his hands now rescuing Kuro from the fire.

Although, Tsuna wasn't certain what to make of the approving light in Hibari's eyes when Kuro launched himself at the faces of his enemies. I mean, Hibari liking Kuro meant less chance of him squishing Kuro, but Hibari also only seemed to like fighting so…

Tsuna decided he wouldn't think about it.

On the flip side, Hana seemed to have adjusted well. She didn't seem to mind the dungeons so badly, and she even smiled when she hit that cockroach in the middle hard enough it actually bounced on the pavement…

Nevermind, that was something else Tsuna wasn't going to think about. He didn't want more friends obsessed with fighting!

…

"So, that's the last of the dungeons we can go to right now?" Hana asked.

"Yeah," said Tsuna, unwrapping his hands. He was glad Ryohei had taught him how to, because otherwise his hands would have probably been a lot more injured.

"Interesting," Hana murmured, pulling out a note pad and a pen. "Do you mind if I come up with some plans?" she asked as she starting writing something down.

"Sure?" said Tsuna. "As long as you're okay."

She smiled at Tsuna. "Thanks, but I thought it would be way worse than it was. Although," she looked askance at the other two girls, "I'm still concerned about those two…"

Tsuna laughed uneasily. "Yeah, me too."

They sighed in unison.

"So, mind if I come over tomorrow? See what else we can figure out?" Hana asked.

"Sure."

"Great, see you then."

"Bye!"

Tsuna watched Hana leave. Somehow, he felt a lot better now about doing dungeons with someone reliable like Hana.

Now… Tsuna looked his shoulder. Kuro looked back at him. Now he had to worry about how he was going to explain Kuro to Mama.

...

Tsuna took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, and opened his front door.

"I'm home!" he called out. Maybe if he was quick he could sneak upstairs before Mama saw Kuro…

"Welcome back!" Mama poked her head out of the kitchen doorway. ABORT MISSION ABORT MISSION.

Tsuna froze up. Mama didn't notice, focusing on Tsuna's shoulder.

"Oh? What's this?" she asked with a smile.

"U-um, this is Kuro, I found it, its-my-pet-now-kay?" Tsuna finished in a rush.

Mama blinked at Tsuna, and then beamed at him. "That's wonderful, Tsu-kun!"

She switched her attention to Kuro. "And what a cute spider!"

"…" Tsuna's Mama really concerned him sometimes.

..

Hana had suggested to him to research spiders online and see what it would take to take care of one. Tsuna had agreed, as he didn't want to hurt Kuro, but at the same time he had his doubts as to how well regular spider care translated to dungeon pets, as he didn't think regular spiders ate steak like Kuro had at dinner that night.

Most of the information online was for tarantulas, which were about Kuro's size, but Kuro was a jumping spider, so Tsuna didn't know if it would work. Kuro would definitely need water and food though. But it was late, so Tsuna set out a small plate of water and a few crackers. He'd buy something tomorrow.

..

The next morning Tsuna decided to call Hana, because if it involved Kuro, there might be new game mechanics involved. And Hana was the best for figuring out game mechanics.

Hana was fine with that, as she didn't have anything until the afternoon. Then both she and Tsuna would be meeting Grandma to go over medkit details.

They met at the park near the center of the neighborhood. Kuro was riding on Tsuna's shoulder. Tsuna could just tell that this was going to be his favorite spot. From the eyebrow Hana raised, so could she.

"You're just going to let him?" she asked.

"A-ah, well, it's not like it's doing any harm," Tsuna said, embarrassed.

"Okay, just don't come crying to me if he gets too big and still insists on sitting there."

"H-Hana!" Tsuna hadn't thought about that. Great, now he wouldn't be able to stop.

Hana laughed at him. Meanie. But, it seemed like she was much happier today. She must have been really stressed before.

"So," Hana asked. "Where's the petshop?"

Tsuna… had no idea.

Hana sighed at him when he told her that. Tsuna ducked his head, embarrassed, but Hana just ruffled his hair and told him to open his map.

"You think that there is a symbol for pet shops?" Tsuna asked.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I haven't gotten a good look at your map yet and it is still a map."

"Okay…"

Hana leaned over his shoulder, looking at the map. She pointed to Tsuna's house. "Was their ever any sign over that?"

"No."

"Can you make a sign?"

"I don't know."

"Try."

Tsuna looked at her. "How?"

Hana frowned. "Try pressing the house."

Tsuna did so. A small circle appeared and slowly filled in with color. When the circle was full, a small box popped up. "Area selected: Add marker?" Then there was a small empty line beneath it with a red x and a green checkmark below. Tsuna poked the empty line and wrote "My House." Then he poked the checkmark.

"Marker Added!"

Hana and Tsuna looked at the dot that was now over Tsuna's house. Above the dot was listed "My House".

"Cool," decided Tsuna. Hana just narrowed her eyes.

"Tsuna, make a party and add me," she commanded.

"Y-yes!"

Once she was added Hana opened her own map. "Huh," she said. "So it looks like markers aren't shared."

"Huh?"

Hana gestured at her map. "I don't have markers that you put on your map on my map."

She added a marker for her house. "Okay, now end the party, create a second one and add me again."

"O-okay, but, um, why?" Tsuna asked as he did so.

Hana opened the map again. "Because I want to see if map makers are saved. And they are."

"O-oh. Cool."

Hana closed the map. "Okay, if you don't know where a pet shop is, let's just go to the shopping district. We can look there."

With that, Hana spun on her heel and marched off like a woman on a mission. Tsuna followed in her wake.

...

Tsuna had never really appreciated how big the shopping district was before. Then again, he'd also never had to keep up with a determined Hana in such a big place before. Hana didn't really window-shop. She charged right ahead, scanning for an info booth, a map, or a pet shop, even though some of these shops looked really interesting. Tsuna resolved to come back later to check some of these things out, maybe with Kyoko. That would be nice.

"Aha!" Hana suddenly shouted. She changed directions, heading towards a little shop Tsuna hadn't noticed. Tsuna jogged to keep up with her. It was a small corner store, clearly not a franchised place, but certainly well-cared for. The door was brightly painted, and there was a nice, handmade sign in the window. Inside, the floors were cheap linoleum, but were clean, and there wasn't a lot on the shelves, but what was there was placed in neat rows. Aside from Tsuna and Hana, there was one other person, a "Kobayashi Yui Store Owner LV14", a cheerful looking young woman in a white blouse and cat-themed skirt.

"Hello," Kobayashi chirped when she saw them, "Can I help you?"

"Yes," Hana said. "What do you know about spiders?"

Tsuna glanced at Hana. That seemed abrupt and kinda rude.

Miss Kobayashi blinked. "As pets?" she asked.

"Yes," said Hana. "My friend," she gestured at Tsuna, "just got a pet spider and we were wondering how to properly care for it."

"A-ah, hello," said Tsuna, who wanted to be polite "This is Kuro." He held out a hand for Kuro to crawl onto and then showed it to Miss Kobayashi.

"Oooh, you're a big boy aren't you," she cooed at Kuro, who waved a leg at her. Miss Kobayashi looked at Tsuna. "I'm afraid I don't know much about caring for spiders, but I do know that they eat insects and bugs, although there are some that eat birds. I have some mealworms as protein supplements you can buy, and various water bowls, but I don't really have any terrariums or books. Although, if you like, I can order something specifically for you."

"Like what?" Hana asked.

"Well, like a terrarium for spiders or live crickets. Or, if I can find it, a book on caring for tarantulas. I haven't really looked specifically for spiders, so I don't know off of the top of my head." Miss Kobayashi smiled apologetically.

"Let's look at the mealworms, and go from there," suggested Tsuna.

"Right over here then."

Miss Kobayashi walked over to a shelf with various packets on them. "I have whole mealworms and powered mealworms, but no live mealworms. I'd recommend the whole ones, as the powered ones are really meant for fish. If you want though, the best choice would be the live ones, and I can get those in about five days. I'd also recommend crickets, but you'll want a terrarium for those." She paused, then asked, "Do you know what kind of tarantula Kuro is?"

"A-ah-""It's not a tarantula," Hana cut Tsuna off. "It's a jumping spider."

"Really? I didn't know they got so big. Are you sure?"

"Yes, you can tell by the eye pattern. What kinds of terrariums would you recommend?"

"O-oh, if Kuro is a jumping spider, I'd recommend a larger tank, so he's have more room to move around." Miss Kobayashi seemed a little confused by Hana's aggression. Tsuna felt bad for her.

"U-um, you sure seem to know your stuff! I bet you're really good at running your shop!" he said, trying to make her feel better.

"Oh, thank you. But how did you know this is my shop?"

Tsuna froze up. Luckily, Miss Kobayashi didn't seem to notice. She had a soft smile and was looking off into the distance. "It's actually because I know so much that I own my own shop, instead of working for a larger franchise. It might seem strange, but a lot of the animals sold in pet shops are injured or sick because of the poor conditions they are kept in, and because it benefits the corporation to sell as much as possible, they don't let people know things that would discourage them from buying a pet. Like how beta fish actually need about five gallons per fish, and the reason they die so quickly normally is because they get stressed being in such a small environment. They can live for over seven years if treated right!"

Miss Kobayashi was talking rapidly now, waving her arms around. "I love animals, that's why I want to help people understand them better, but I can't do that in a corporation. So I started my own shop. I want to teach others how to care for animals properly! Although…" she looked sheepish. "I haven't really had a lot of customers. I can't afford a lot of advertising, and since I only stock quality items, I tend to be more expensive then the bigger stores. I want to improve but… it takes money, money I don't have."

"Quest Alert! Yui's Littlest Pet Shop of Dreams! Raise 120,000 yen to help Kobayashi Yui pay for an advertising campaign and improve her store. Time Limit: None. Reward: Increase Reputation with Yui Kobayashi, Small Business Owners, Namimori Humane Society, 10% discount on all items bought at "Our Animal Friends", Unlock "Our Animal Friends" Personalization +1000 XP. Fail Penalty: None."

Beside him, Hana made a noise of surprise. Apparently she could see it too.

Tsuna considered the quest. 120,000 yen sounded like a lot, but he got plenty of money from running dungeons, and there wasn't a time limit. Well, it didn't seem like Tsuna could fail, so why not?

"I'll see what I can do to help," he promised as he hit the accept button.

"Oh! Thank you!" Miss Kobayashi sounded surprised. "But don't worry if you can't. You are still kids after all."

Hana huffed to Tsuna's left. Tsuna just smiled.

He ended up buying a case of mealworms and a proper water dish for Kuro, as well as ordering a book on spiders and some live mealworms.

..

"I wonder what personalization means?" Hana wondered as they walked through the plaza. Tsuna shrugged next to her, preoccupied with licking ice cream off of his fingers. He still had plenty of money, so they both had got popsicles after leaving the shop.

Hana looked off into the distance, brows furrowed and not noticing the cool liquid dripping off of her hand. Tsuna did, however.

"Ah, Hana? You're getting ice cream on your dress."

"Eh?" Hana blinked and looked down. "Eek!"

She threw the remains of her popsicle in the trash and headed for a restroom. Tsuna walked to an empty bench nearby and sat down. He finished his popsicle and wiped his hands on his pants while he waited.

Hana came out a short while later with wet spots on her dress. She spotted Tsuna and sat down next to him.

After a moment, she turned to him and asked, "So how do you normally prepare for a dungeon?"

"Well, Hibari likes to call me out a few times a week to "spar"…" Tsuna made a face.

"You have my pity," Hana said.

"And I have baking practice with Mama and Onii-san insists on teaching me how to fight, but that's about it," Tsuna said.

"Have you ever thought about creating a sort of unified practice time? You know, like get everyone together and spar in a group?"

Tsuna gave Hana a deadpan look. "You really want to set Hibari against Kyoko and Haru?"

She winced. "Good point. But you are already fighting him regularly, and since we can heal Ryohei just fine, if you are Ryohei switch off, you could both get better and not be his sole focus. Plus," and here she grimaced, "I'm concerned that Kyoko and Haru aren't practicing as hard as they need to be because they're so certain it will work out just fine. If we practice together, I can check up on their progress and maybe suggest things."

"Oh, that kinda does make sense. It wouldn't surprise me either."

"But the biggest reason is that if we party while training, we can take advantage of your ability, and I think that would really help us get stronger faster."

"Ah. That sounds like a really good idea, thanks Hana! I can text Hibari and Onii-san and ask them now, if you think I should."

"Sure. I've got Kyoko's and Haru's numbers, so I'll text them."

They spent a few moments texting their friends and relaxing. Within a few moments, Tsuna's box popped back up and Hana's phone dinged.

"What an Extreme idea! Let's do it! Where are you!?" yelled Ryohei.

"U-um-" Tsuna looked over at Hana who looked just as surprised. She held up a cell phone that read, "Sounds great XO! Let's start rite away ~desu XOXO :-D!"

"Herbivores," Hibari said as Tsuna clapped a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from screaming. "Where are you?"

"AH! Hibari! Will you be extremely joining us too?!"

"Oh no," Hana whispered as Hibari and Ryohei broke out fighting over Tsuna's chat system.

Tsuna screwed his face up in horror. If this continued, it could mean war! They had to start the meeting quick, but he and Hana were nowhere near ready. So… more time!

"W-wait! Me and Hana are in the shopping district, and we're not wearing exercise clothes. Meet us at Namimori Park in, like, half an hour? Please?" Tsuna was not ashamed to admit his voice squeaked at the last part.

"Hmph," said Hibari.

"Sounds Extreme!" said Ryohei.

"Oh! Ryohei, bring exercise equipment too!" yelled Hana from over Tsuna's shoulder.

"And snacks! Please!" Tsuna tacked on.

"Great!" "Fine." And the boxes dismissed themselves.

"Good thinking," Hana breathed as she typed. "Although," and here she grimaced, "I'm gonna have to run to make it."

"Yeah, me too." They glanced at each other, then smiled and started jogging.

..

Tsuna was out of breath by the time they made it to the park. So was Hana. In contrast, Kyoko and Haru looked fresh as daisies and Ryohei… never ran out of energy, period. It was so unfair. There was a small pile of food in the center of the clearing, from chips to energy bars and muffins. Next to it sat a red duffle bag. Tsuna and Hana dropped their offerings in the pile and sat down for a quick breather.

After a few moments, Hibari strode into the clearing like the black fog of death he was. He dropped a handful of energy bars and a single loaf of sliced bread into the center.

Then he took out his tonfa's and looked at others.

"Ah-ah, wait!" Tsuna yelped. "M-maybe we should see what exercise equipment Onii-san brought first?" he ended meekly.

Hibari blinked, and then turned expectantly to Ryohei, who beamed.

He upended the duffle bag to show various weights and some kind of blow-up thing. Ryohei picked the weights and held them up. "These are weights!" he proclaimed proudly. Next to Tsuna, Hana face palmed. "You can hold them while you run or lift them to increase strength and stamina!"

Tsuna eyed the weights. He didn't know you could run with them.

"Cool! Haru thinks we should run for a bit!" said Haru brightly. Tsuna stole a glance at Hibari before agreeing strongly.

Hibari hmphed as the others voiced their agreements. "I'm taking a nap then," he said.

"But that's not Extreme! We should Extremely train together!" Ryohei immediately disagreed.

Sensing a fight brewing and not wanting to be in the center of it, Tsuna hurriedly stepped in. "U-um, Onii-san! Maybe Hibari already ran today! If he's tired, then shouldn't he rest?" Seeing Ryohei pause, he mentioned, "You don't want to fight a tired opponent, right?"

That clinched it. Ryohei nodded brightly at Tsuna, picked up his weights and started running. Tsuna set Kuro down, picked up a pair of weights as well and started jogging after Ryohei.

..

The sun was beating down, Ryohei was yelling "Extreme!" and Tsuna wanted to die. He was just barely dragging his feet trying to keep up and his arms felt like lead. Why did he think this was a good idea?

Even worse was that he realized now he needed to bring a water bottle next time. There were water fountains, but he still felt like dying. What was worse was that Ryohei was just as happy as ever, and was now trying to encourage the rest of them, Tsuna most of all, as the others were girls. Even Kuro wasn't jumping as far as it was in the beginning.

"We are Extreme Men, Tsuna! C'mon!"

Tsuna shot a half-hearted glare at Ryohei. He was going to die. Forget Hibari, forget the dungeons, he was going to die right here, right now, from stupid running.

"WE ARE EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled in Tsuna's face. Something inside Tsuna snapped.

"Heh-heh-hey, huff, I bet, huff huff, Hibari's awake now," he said to Ryohei. "Why, huff, don't you, huff, show him, huff huff, how to be extreme?"

Ryohei beamed at Tsuna. "What an EXTREME idea!" he yelled and ran off.

Tsuna collapsed. He laid face down in the dirt. Kuro jumped on his back.

"Thanks," Hana gasped.

Tsuna gave a mumble from where he was lying.

Kyoko and Haru caught up a few moments later. Ryohei hadn't wanted to make Kyoko run as hard and Haru stuck to Kyoko like glue.

"Huff, huff, is it over?" Haru asked.

"For now," said Hana.

"Hahi," Haru said as she and Kyoko collapsed, sitting on the ground. "That was really hard."

Kyoko, breathing heavily, smiled and said, "E-huff-effective though. I got a point in con-sti-tution."

There was nodding all around. Tsuna pulled himself up off of the ground and stumbled to the nearest water fountain, leaving his weights on the ground. He swallowed what had to be a gallon of water and then just put his head in the stream.

Hana and Kyoko had water bottles, but Haru hadn't thought of it so she dragged herself after Tsuna and drank when he was done.

Then they, collectively, picked their weights up and stumbled, wincing and moaning, back into the clearing.

The damage… wasn't as bad as Tsuna feared it would be. Sure, the ground was torn up and trees were missing branches, but the food was okay.

Hibari and Ryohei were doing their best to rip each other apart. Even after such grueling exercise, Ryohei was holding his own, and Hibari was- Hibari was Hibari.

"Ugh. They're both monsters," Hana muttered next to Tsuna. Tsuna nodded.

Then they both sighed and got to their respective tasks. Tsuna wrapped his hands and started practicing his punches, Kuro on his shoulder once more. Hana organized the girls and had them spar- well it was more like play-fighting-each other, and then she set up a target, strung her bow and started shooting.

They continued for about fifteen minutes, occasionally moving to allow Ryohei and Hibari's fight through.

Then it started to rain.

Tsuna was the first to notice. He put a hand up to feel the light droplets. Something felt… off.

"Hey Hana?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"Is there supposed to be a storm today or anything?"

"A storm?" Hana looked at Tsuna. "I don't think so. Why?"

He pointed up at the swirling clouds above them.

"That's odd," Hana murmured. "It was sunny just a few moments ago."

"Yeah. There wasn't a cloud in sight."

Kyoko and Haru looked over from where they were "sparring".

"Is something wrong?" Kyoko asked.

"I'm not sure-""Yes," Tsuna interrupted Hana. "I don't know what's going on, but something is wrong."

He could feel it in his bones.

"Hibari, Onii-san! Something weird is happening," he yelled.

The sounds of battle stopped. Without them, the clearing was eerily quiet.

"Hey, where did the sounds of children playing go?" Haru asked as Ryohei and Hibari made their way over.

"Or the animals," Hana said grimly.

Tsuna kept glancing around, beginning to feel paranoid. Then he saw it.

"Look!" he pointed. It was a short, stubby boy, wearing an umbella like hat and kimono, with a red something on his wrist. Above his head were the words [Rogue Amefuri Kozou]. The boy giggled, waved his hands, and then it started raining harder.

An orange box appeared in front of Tsuna. "Special Event Occuring! A Rogue Amefuri Kozou on the loose! A Rogue Amefuri Kozou is making it rain all over town! Stop him in 1 hour or it will rain for the rest of the week!"

The Amefuri Kozou giggled again and ran off.

"Hey, wait!" Tsuna yelled, and with that, the group ran after the yokai.

It was a swift and nimble thing, the yokai. Tsuna, Hana, Kyoko and Haru were panting in minutes, and Ryohei and Hibari weren't able to slip through the cracks the yokai could.

"Huff, huff, hey, huff, Tsuna, huff, open your, huff, map!" Hana told Tsuna. He blinked at her but did so.

Hana stopped, holding out an arm to stop Tsuna. When he looked at her, she pointed to a blue raindrop on his map. "That, huff, the yokai. Huff, we're not, huff, going to outrun it. Maybe, huff, we can go around?"

Tsuna frowned. "I'm not sure, huff, if we could outrun it even then, huff. Maybe if we trick it?"

"Like, make a trap? That could work."

...

Tsuna had the stick with a piece of candy and bells tied to it. Kyoko and Haru had the ends of the rope. And Hana had the binoculars.

"Here they come! Get ready!" she yelled.

Tsuna hid behind the lightpole, and dangled the candy out, shaking the stick to make the bells ring. Kyoko and Haru hid behind trash cans on either side of alley.

The Amefuri Kozou came up the intersecting road. You could pinpoint the exact moment it saw the candy, because its eyes and smile widened. It changed directions and shot down the alley.

"Steady," said Hana. "Steadddyyy… Now!"

Kyoko and Haru pulled the rope tight. The Amefuri Kozou cried out as it hit the ground, hard. As if the sound was a summons, Hibari appeared and flew at the unfortunate yokai. He fell upon it like a demon upon a helpless victim.

"Gaah, I'm sorry, stop! Please!" the yokai cried out. It sounded… exactly like a young boy. Exactly like Tsuna did when his bullies hit him.

Now Tsuna felt like a scumbag.

"H-hey, Hibari?" He tried. No reaction. "Hibari, I think that's enough." Didn't even pause. The yokai gave out a particularly heartwrenching cry. Tsuna had it.

"Hibari, stop!" Tsuna put a hand out to stop Hibari. As soon as he touched Hibari's arm, Hibari froze. He stood stock still for a second, before shaking himself and glaring at Tsuna. Tsuna flinched but held his ground. "That's enough," he repeated.

Then he turned to the Amefuri Kozou, who was wimpering on the ground. "I just wanted to have some fun…" it mumbled.

"Er, hi," Tsuna started. "I'm Tsuna, and these are my friends. Ummm… you said you just wanted to have fun?"

The yokai turned and looked up at him with tearstained eyes. It hesitated and nodded. "Well, me and my friends like to have fun too," Tsuna started. "But to do that, we rely on the weather station to tell us what the weather is going to be. If you mess with the weather, you make it so other people can't have fun. Do you want that?"

The yokai sat up and shook its head. "Sorry," it mumbled. "I wasn't thinking."

"That's okay," Tsuna instantly said. "Just- please don't do it again, okay?"

"I won't," the yokai said as it got up. It hesitated, then slipped the red thing, a ribbon attached to a red bell, off its wrist and held it out to Tsuna. "Here," it mumbled again. "As an apology."

"Oh, you don't have to-" "Take it," the yokai insisted.

"O-okay." Tsuna slipped it onto his wrist. "Thank you."

Then the yokai smiled at Tsuna. It wasn't a particularly pretty yokai, but the smile was brilliant. It waved at them, then jumped into air, vanishing along with the rain. The sounds of life in Namimori, oddly absent before, came back into being.

"Special Event Concluded!"

Tsuna ignored the pop-up to use [Observe] on the bell. "The Rain-Giver's Bell," he read aloud. "This magic bell can be rung once a week to cause steady rainfall on a square mile for one (1) hour." He blinked at the bell. "Huh."

"That could be useful during a drought," Hana murmured.

"Yeah," Tsuna agreed. He raised the bell to get a better look at it. The movement cause the bell to ring, and then it was raining again.

"Oops," said Tsuna. Beside him, Hana face palmed.

..

Because he caused the rain, Tsuna paid for everyone's umbrellas. Unfortunatly, the sudden rain had ruined most of the snacks, so they had to throw those away. It was too bad, Tsuna hated wasting food.

Still, it wasn't as uncomfortable as the looks Hibari kept sending Tsuna throughout the walk back. He didn't seem angry, more… confused? Or maybe wary. He didn't seem upset though, it was just odd. After they had thrown away the food, Hibari took one last look at Tsuna before turning on his heel and striding out.

Ryohei and the girls lived in the same direction as Tsuna, so they walked together.

Tsuna noticed Hana kept gnawing on her lower lip. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Ye-. No. Not really. I'm not hurt," she said, seeing the look on Tsuna's face. "It's just that Hibari and Ryohei outstripped us by far during the chase. What if we had been running from something, or something was chasing us? Could we have gotten away then?"

"Do you really think Hibari would run, from anything?" Tsuna joked weakly.

Hana smiled briefly at him. "No, but, you see where I'm coming from."

Tsuna nodded. "I do," he said.

They were silent for a moment and then Tsuna said, "I thought about that a lot before I got the gamer thing. Not in the same way, but like, can I get a good grade? Will I trip and fall in gym class? But, I'm not so scared about that anymore."

Tsuna swung the arm not holding the umbrella back and forth. "I was alone then, so if I couldn't do something, that was it. But now, now I has you, and Hibari, and Onii-san and Kyoko and Haru. So if I can't do something, I can ask for help! A-and, I might not be able to do much, but I'll help if you ask me to too." He peered up earnestly at Hana, who seemed surprised for a moment.

Then she gave him the gentlest smile he had ever seen on her, possible the only real smile he had ever seen on her and reached up and ruffled his hair.

"Thanks," she said. The she sped up, with Tsuna at her side, so that they were next to Kyoko and Haru. "Hey you two," she said. "Think we should make this something regular?"

"Hahi! Yeah!" "Yes, that sounds fun," the girls agreed. Then Haru turned to Kyoko. "Although, Haru needs to get better exercise outfits if we keep doing this. I only have gymnastics exercise clothes."

"Oh, we can go shopping tomorrow for cute exercise clothes!" Kyoko said. "Tsuna-kun, Hana, would you like to join us?"

"A-ah, me?" Tsuna asked. He blushed and looked at his feet. "S-sure, if you don't mind."

"Of course not. Hana?"

Hana smiled and tugged at her tracksuit. "Dad just bought this for me. Be rude if I got something new immediately."

"Okay. Tomorrow then Tsuna?"

"S-sure!" Tsuna felt as though his face could have split from his smile.

..

The thermometer in Tsuna's mouth beeped.

"Oh dear, that's definitely a fever," Tsuna's Mama said.

It looked like Tsuna couldn't go out today.

It was alright though. Kyoko and Haru got sick too. They said it was from running around in the rain.

…

 **AN:** So it turns out good reviews are really nice when you don't do good on a test. And really good at motivating me to write. I was not expecting to get this chapter out so fast.

Anyways, here we see a bit more Hana. She's bossy and has a bit of trouble with tunnel vision, but she's also logical, intelligent and loyal. That bossiness is going to be troublesome when Reborn shows up though.

As for Hibari, I don't really think he gets touched a lot, unless it's in a spar. I'm also not sure Hibari fully realizes that.

On that note, most of the character development will happen under Reborn. Sure Tsuna and his friends are incredible, but they are ultimately kids, that don't have the experience or maturity of an adult. Or, as mature as Reborn gets, anyways.

Good news on that front, we are about halfway chapterwise through the "introduction" arc, which is basically everything before Reborn and justification for a lot of what I have planned later on. Only about 6, give or take a few chapters, to go until we get to Reborn and the meat of the story.

As a side note, I found the yokai mentioned her at yokai . com, under Amefuri Kozo, but with a line over the o, which I don't know how to do. So, Amefuri Kozou it is.

So let me know what you think!

Sawada Tsunayoshi

Vongola Heir

LV 6

HP 93

FP 70

Strength 10

Constitution 15

Agility 10

Intelligence 8

Wisdom 14

Luck 4


	7. Pets, Yakuza, and Birthday Parties

Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.

…

In hindsight, Tsuna should've seen this coming.

"We're gonna get spider-pets too, hahi!" said Haru.

"I agree!" said Kyoko.

"Yes! It would be Extreme!" Ryohei.

Hibari just stood there resolutely.

Tsuna turned to Hana. "If it's possible, I'd like to see how it works. Besides, if the pets are as protective as yours is, it might actually be helpful. Sort of an attack or guard pet," she said.

Tsuna just sighed and didn't bother to argue. He could tell he wasn't going to win, just like he could tell that _something_ was going to go wrong.

He and Hana did, however, manage to argue for doing the spider dungeon last, on the grounds that the spider pets would still be weak so it would be best to get them after the fighting was done. Kuro had gotten a bit bigger since Tsuna got him, but even so he didn't like how Kuro didn't seem to realize he could get hurt, so Kuro had been left at home. Tsuna didn't want to imagine having five Kuros getting in the way of battle. Hibari would kill them.

The rest had agreed with varying levels of reluctance, so off they strode. Even so, it seemed like the others were more vicious than normal, trying to get the dungeons done faster.

The spider dungeon itself was done in a flash. Then the others split up, seeking out any movement. Tsuna stayed in the middle of the room. Maybe if he wasn't anywhere near, he wouldn't get blamed for whatever train wreck was about to happen.

"Hahi, Haru found one!" Haru said joyously.

"Great! Hello little spidy~," Kyoko said.

"You know, if you crowd so close, you might scare it," said Hana. Tsuna nodded, even though there was no way for them to see him.

"Since you found it, I think it's yours," said Kyoko as she backed up.

"Thanks!" Haru held out a little bit of food and backed off. Her spider, which was a bit bigger than Kuro and brown, didn't seem as timid as Kuro had been. After a second it plodded forward and was soon happily munching on the food.

Haru barely had to feed it a second time before it was hers. "Oooo, it's a Baby Weaving Spider!" she said.

"Cool," said Kyoko appreciatively, while Ryohei yelled "Extreme!" next to her.

"So, there are multiple types of spider pets possible. Interesting," said Hana.

"I'm going to name it Borento, after to super famous cosplayer!" declared Haru.

Tsuna and Hibari just watched on with silence. Then the group went back to searching for spiders.

It seemed like Baby Weaving Spiders and Baby Jumping Spiders were equally common, but Jumping Spiders were much more active. Kyoko and Ryohei both got Jumping Spiders. Kyoko named hers "Hime" while Ryohei decided to name his "Manly Man". Hana facepalmed at that. She got one of each, named "Marie Curie" and "Sally Ride".

Hibari could not seem to turn down his intimidating aura enough to capture a spider, and after watching him get increasingly frusterated over half an hour, Hana and Tsuna evacuated the others home. When another hour proved fruitless, Hana found a nearby den of delinquents and basically sacrificed them to Hibari. Then they called it a day.

..

It was a pretty decent summer after that. Tsuna got into a regular routine with the others. Every three days was a dungeon run, Wednesdays were group training days, Saturdays were dedicated to learning about first aid with Grandma, and Tsuna and the girls got together to learn how to cook with Tsuna's Mama at least once every week, after which they'd go shopping together. He also began to spend time with Ryohei on his morning runs, or rather, Ryohei told Tsuna that they were running together in the mornings and then didn't take no for an answer. Tsuna… probably could've gotten him to stop, but he just looked so happy Tsuna just didn't have the heart for it. It helped him with sprinting and endurance anyways.

He and Hana kept getting together, but as they slowly figured out the mysteries of the gamer thing of Tsuna's, it slowly turned into mutual venting sessions about all the crazy things around them. "Hibari just walked past me, dragging the guy behind him like he was a wagon or something. The guy had to be at least sixteen!" Tsuna exclaimed. "I know," Hana said. "Just the other day I'm pretty sure Ryohei told me he had accidentally punched through a wall. How do you accidentally punch through a wall of all things?"

They looked at each other and then agreed to never talk about that again.

Kuro and the other spiders grew a little, although they were still labelled [Baby] spiders. Hana thought it might be because since these were dungeon spiders, they might take a while to grow up. Hibari was still not successful in finding a spider that would accept him, and eventually just declared that spiders were not carnivorous for him.

Overall, disregarding that Tsuna and his friends had picked up a hobby of violently killing monsters, the summer was actually pretty peaceful. There was only one real big event that happened towards the end of the summer, when Tsuna collected the necessary 120,000 yen for the Namimori pet shop quest.

..

"So this is the place?" Kyoko asked, looking at the little pet store. Tsuna felt that, since they had helped him raise the amount, he should tell Kyoko and the others what the money was for.

"Hahi! It's adorable!" said Haru.

"It's Extremely small! But Extremely nice too!" yelled Ryohei.

Hibari just stood under a tree a little ways away, watching the group.

Hana had her notebook and a pen out, and gave Tsuna a look that said 'well? What are you waiting for?'

Tsuna sighed and led the way in. He hoped there wouldn't be any destruction today.

Miss Kobayashi looked up from her place behind the counter. "Oh! Hello again Sawada, Kurokawa. Who are your friends?"

Tsuna introduced them all, even Hibari, who hadn't come inside.

"So," said Kobayashi, after the introductions had ended, "What can I do for you today?"

"A-ah, well, do you remember what I said I would do? When me and Hana first came here?" Tsuna asked.

"Hm? Yes, well I said you didn't have to… no. No, you didn't," Miss Kobayashi gasped as she made the connection.

Tsuna peeked up at her, a wide smile splitting his cheeks as he held out the money to her. Miss Kobayashi squealed, then reached out and hugged Tsuna.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou-" she squealed.

"A-ah, you're welcome," said Tsuna "But my friends helped too."

She released Tsuna, then turned to his friends and repeated her thanks.

"Hahi, you're welcome!" said Haru "Can we help with the advertising?"

"Of course!"

…

Haru, being a designer, and Kyoko, being Haru's friend, got way too into it. So did Ryohei, even if he didn't understand it.

Hana, Hibari and Tsuna did not. Hana was actually disappointed that nothing major happened, aside from a new quest "For the Pets!" which the requirements were a) build a sign, b) hand out 500 flyers and c) "?".

Haru, and Kyoko were put in charge of building the sign. All of them except for Hibari would be helping hand out flyers. Tsuna wasn't certain why Hibari was even hanging out with them while they were doing this. He hoped he wouldn't have to deal with preventing the deaths of innocents.

At least Hibari and Miss Kobayashi seemed to get along okay. Hibari approved of her protection of animals, and therefore was somewhat tolerant of her. Miss Kobayashi told Tsuna she just thought of Hibari as an independent cat and treated him accordingly.

The day of the campaign was only a week before the start of school. It was a bright sunny day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, Haru was in a fish costume…

Tsuna did a double take. Haru had apparently made a giant goldfish costume, one that hung off her shoulders. It was bright orange, and Tsuna found himself wondering where she has managed to find googly eyes that were that big.

Haru noticed him looking. "Oh, Tsuna-kun you're here! Do you like Haru's costume?" she asked.

"I-it will certainly stand out," Tsuna said. He hadn't really processed it enough to say whether he liked it or not. Tsuna thought he probably should have realized Haru would do something like this when she told him that she wanted to be a costume designer when she grew up. When he got over his shock though, he guessed it was cute, if a bit odd.

Haru smiled and handed Tsuna a stack of flyers. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the shop. "You should see the sign me and Kyoko made. It's so cute!" She turned and spotted Kyoko. "Kyoko! Tsuna's here!"

"Oh, how nice. Take a look at the sign we made!" She gestured at it. The name of the shop was in felt stick on letters and underneath were several well-done drawings. Tsuna could tell that Hana had prevented the two from going overboard, as it wasn't covered in ribbons.

"It looks amazing!" Tsuna said. "Thanks!" said the two girls.

They chatted for a few minutes until Hana and Ryohei arrived. Then they began to pass out the flyers. Well, Tsuna, Kyoko, and Haru handed out flyers. Ryohei tried to help, but he was overenthusiastic, so Hana rode herd on him.

Even so, Tsuna though that the people responded better to Kyoko and Haru than him. Not that he was surprised, they were both cute girls after all.

After a while, Hana suggested that they split up and walk to different parts of the shopping area, try to cover more ground. Everyone agreed, so off they set. Tsuna ended up near the food court, where he passed out more flyers for half an hour. It was getting closer to lunchtime, so Tsuna was thinking about going back to get more flyers before the rush hit. He turned around to head towards the shop when he bumped into someone.

"Oh, pardon me-hiee!" he said, looking up and up and Up. The man he had bumped into was huge! He was tall, with dark hair in a buzzcut and his nose looked funny. Above his head was written "Yakuza Grunt, LV 18"

"Ah, I'm really sorry!" Tsuna said, bowing.

The man looked down at him. "Hey," the man asked in a rough voice "You seen a group of kids handing out flyers?"

Tsuna looked at the flyers in his hands. "Er, yes?"

"Well," and here the man gave Tsuna a smile with several broken teeth. "You let those kids know that their concern is unnecessary. Sometimes small business owners just can't keep up. And sometimes," he gave Tsuna a leer " _accidents_ happen. Those kids probably have a bright future. It would be terrible if something damaged that." The man turned on his heel and left.

For a moment, Tsuna couldn't breathe. He'd heard about the Yakuza, and these kinds of threats before. He'd never thought he'd actually see it in real life.

Tsuna choked back a hysterical laugh. What had his life become? Then a sensation like a cold finger traced his spine. What would his friends do? Hana would be sensible, but the rest of them would absolutely try to fight the Yakuza. Tsuna had to get them in one location first. He and Hana would do their best to prevent the worst from occurring, but if not, safety in numbers.

Tsuna pulled out his phone.

..

"What's up Tsuna?" asked Kyoko. Haru and Ryohei nodded next to her.

"A-ah, h-have you seen any big scary guys around?" Tsuna asked.

"Yess?" Hana answered cautiously.

"W-well, they… might? Be Yakuza. That, ah, aren't too happy with the pet shop thing. One, er, _might_ have threatened me."

Ryohei and Hana looked furious. Kyoko and Haru gasped. Tsuna cringed preemptively.

"WHAT?! THAT'S SO UNEXTREME!" yelled Ryohei at twice his normal volume.

"That's horrible," said Haru. Next to her, Kyoko asked "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said Tsuna. "But, what are we going to do? I don't want any of you getting hurt, but…" Tsuna pushed his fingers together. "…I don't want Miss Kobayashi to get hurt either."

"WE BEAT THEM UP LIKE EXTREME MEN!" yelled Ryohei.

"Shush!" hushed Hana. "Don't say that so loud, we'll get in trouble. Furthermore, Yakuza are not like video game enemies. We might actually get seriously hurt."

"But we can't just leave her," said Kyoko.

"Yeah, not when we are like superheroes! Superheroes fight for Justice!" said Haru.

"Calm down. We'll have to find another way," said Hana.

There was a moment of silence.

"Er, Hana, you watch a lot of crime dramas, don't you?" Tsuna asked. She'd shown him some of her favorites. "How do they deal with Yakuza in crime dramas?"

Hana looked thoughtful. "Well, normally there's a crime first, like a murder, and the police have to find evidence, often through surveillance methods…" she trailed off, a thoughtful look on her face.

"Oh? We can go to the police!" said Haru.

"No," said Hana immediately. "That probably won't work." She was still gazing off into the distance.

"Ah, in the shows," said Tsuna. "The bad guys often pay off of the police. Not to mention, there's no reason for the police to actually listen to us. We are only kids." He frowned, remembering all the times that the teacher hadn't believed him when he had said another kid pushed him, insisting that he was just clumsy.

"Plus, if they're interested in a pet shop of all things, they probably have ties to the bigger shops. They might claim that they're legitimate businessmen and not Yakuza." Hana added. Then she crossed her arms. "How many of us have cell phones that can record things?"

All of them except Ryohei did. He said he broke his too often.

"Okay," said Hana. "We'll have someone be bait. They'll have their phone recording, and we'll be around the corner watching. We'll try to catch one of them saying something incriminating, then have Ryohei be loud, and make a scene letting the bait escape. Then we go to the police."

Tsuna nodded. "I'll text Hibari and tell him we'll be taking evidence to the police. I know they take him seriously," he added.

"Good," said Hana. "Who wants to be bait?"

Haru and Kyoko both raised their hands. Tsuna hesitated, and then put his hand up.

Hana frowned, looking at them. Ryohei gaped. "Kyoko! It's too dangerous!" he said.

Kyoko pouted. "I'm a part of this team too! I wanna help!"

"Why don't we have Kyoko and Haru stay together?" Hana cut off the budding argument. "Two people is better than one. Tsuna has already been approached, so he would also be good."

Ryohei didn't look happy about that, but Tsuna thought he could tell that Kyoko wasn't going to give in that easily.

The group gathered their flyers and set off. Hana had to show Tsuna how to rig his cellphone to record things, which Tsuna thought would be very useful, but otherwise it was going off without a hitch. Kyoko and Haru took one end of the food court and Tsuna took the other, with Hana and Ryohei taking a table in the middle. They arrived in the middle of the rush, so Tsuna was run off his feet talking to businessmen and women stuck waiting in lines. He was so busy, he completely forgot about what he was meant to accomplish. It wasn't until a heavy hand landed on his shoulder that he remembered.

"Hey kid," a familiar voice growled. "I thought we talked about this."

The Yakuza grunt looked up at the people Tsuna had been talking to, a couple thinking about getting a dog.

"Scram," he said. The couple left quickly. Tsuna gulped. He looked to where Hana and Ryohei were sitting, but Hana wasn't there and Ryohei was watching Kyoko and Haru.

"Now, then, what did I tell you about getting involved in unimportant things," the grunt sneered at Tsuna.

"A-ah, I-I have n-no i-d-d-dea what y-y-you are t-t-talking about," Tsuna said.

The look on the grunt's face showed he wasn't buying it.

"Well, let me make it clear then. Stay. Out. Of. This. Kobayashi Yui is a fool and a dreamer and she is going to fail. If you're with her, you're going to fail too." The Yakuza grunt sneered at Tsuna again. "In fact, let me make it even clearer." He raised his hand.

Tsuna stared at the hand as it seemed to rise in slow motion. The grunt's other hand was still clapped on Tsuna's shoulder, rooting him to the spot. What could he do whatcouldhedo-

Tsuna shut his eyes.

He heard a crack, and suddenly the hand on his shoulder was gone.

Tsuna peeked open an eye. The grunt lay spread-eagle on the ground in front of him. And standing to the side was-

"Hibari!" Tsuna shouted in surprise and gratitude.

Hibari glanced over at him before returning to the unfortunate Yakuza.

"Threatening small animals to make a profit is illegal in Namimori. For that, I'll bite you to death."

Tsuna had never thought he would be so relieved to hear that catchphrase. For a moment he was worried for Hibari, but then he realized that Hibari's level was 16, while the grunt's was 18. Then he was worried for the grunt.

He was right to be worried. The beating was savage. Tsuna had no idea that Hibari cared so much about pets.

"Tsuna!" Tsuna turned to see Hana, Ryohei, Kyoko and Haru running up to him.

"Hey, um, I got a recording?" said Tsuna.

"Nevermind that, are you okay!?" Hana asked frantically.

"A-ah, yes. I'm fine. Hibari got here just in time."

Hana took a good look to make sure Tsuna was telling the truth, then twisted to look at Ryohei.

"Why weren't you watching him!?" she snarled.

Ryohei looked horrified. "I-I'm sorry," he said in the quietest voice Tsuna had ever heard him use. "I-I was so worried about Kyoko I didn't notice."

"Didn't notice? Didn't notice?! TSUNA NEARLY GOT HURT BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE!"

Ryohei looked like he would cry. "Hana…" Kyoko said, but didn't continue. It looked as though she didn't know what to say.

Tsuna took a breath. "Hana, I'm sure that Onii-san didn't mean to put me in danger."

When it looked like she would protest, he put a hand on her arm. "Yes, this shouldn't have happened," Tsuna said soothingly. "But nothing happened this time, and now we can make sure it doesn't happen again, okay?"

For a moment Hana looked like she would continue arguing, but then she signed and waved a hand at Tsuna irritably. He smiled at her. Then he looked at Ryohei.

Ryohei looked devastated. "Onii-san?" Tsuna asked hesitantly. Ryohei looked at Tsuna, then at his feet, then threw himself at Tsuna and wrapped his arms around him. "Onii-san?!" Tsuna squeaked. Then he felt Ryohei's shoulders shaking and a wet patch on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," he whispered to Tsuna.

Tsuna hesitated, then patted Ryohei on his back. "It's okay," he told Ryohei. Then he put his arms around him and waited for Ryohei to stop crying.

When the snuffling subsided, Tsuna asked "Are you okay now?"

Ryohei trembled. Then he whisper in a raw voice, "I'm so unextreme."

"What?" Tsuna squeaked.

"I'm so unextreme," Ryohei whispered. "I said you could call me Onii-san, but I failed to act like one. I'm so sorry," he whispered again and he sounded so broken that Tsuna's heart ached for him.

"N-no, you didn't," Tsuna started. "You made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and you aren't going to make the same mistake ever again. But you do act like a big brother. You always try to make sure I'm capable of fighting, and that I'm okay. And you train really really hard so that you can protect me and Kyoko. You're a great big brother. You just made a mistake."

Ryohei sniffed and pulled away, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve furiously to dry them. Then he smiled at Tsuna.

It wasn't as blindingly bright as his normal smiles, but it was a real one, and that told Tsuna that Ryohei would be okay.

Then Ryohei screamed at the sky, "I'LL TRAIN UNTIL I'M THE MOST EXTREME BIG BROTHER EVER!"

Tsuna chuckled, even as his ears hurt. That was his Onii-san.

Then an ominous feeling enveloped him.

"Herbivores," a cold voice said behind Tsuna. "For disrupting the peace of Namimori, I'll bite you to death."

..

"Sorry Hibari," Tsuna said as the group limped back to the pet shop, with Haru and Kyoko helping Ryohei and Hana and Tsuna supporting each other. "But thank you for helping us. I'm sure Miss Kobayashi will appreciate it."

"It is not about the mothering herbivore. It is about equality. Weak herbivores crowd to strangle other herbivores preventing the rise of carnivores. They then claim they are the carnivores, ignoring the true carnivores. All things should know their place."

Tsuna… didn't understand that. Actually, he thought that might have been the most he had ever heard Hibari say at once. But it was clearly important so he just nodded and decided to try to figure it out later.

Soon they were at the pet shop. Out front, Miss Kobayashi was talking to a nice-looking woman who was labeled "Namimori Humane Society Social Worker". She gasped when she saw them and ran over.

"Oh, my goodness, are you okay?" she asked.

"Y-yes, we… might have run into some Yakuza. But it's okay!" Tsuna said quickly as Miss Kobayashi looked horrified. "Hibari beat them up and now they are at the police station."

"Really? Which one?" asked the women next to her.

"Oh, um, the one by the food court," Tsuna said.

The women turned towards the food court, blinked, and then turned back towards Tsuna. "Oh, sorry for my rudeness, I'm with the Namimori Humane Society. We've had tips come in about an illegal dog fighting ring. This could be a breakthrough! Here, take this."

She thrust a handful of business cards into Tsuna's hands and left quickly. "Thank you…?" he said to the empty air.

"I'm sorry," Miss Kobayashi said. "I shouldn't have asked you to do this. I thought it would be safe…" She trailed off looking guilty.

"A-ah, it's fine! It should have been safe!" Tsuna said. "Besides, we have Hibari. And now that the Yakuza has been arrested, it will be safe, right?"

Miss Kobayashi gave Tsuna a small smile and nod. Then she sighed. "I wish I could pay you guys for helping me, but I really don't have the spare cash. However, I will give you a discount on all items you buy here, and I'll tell my storeowner friends how you've helped me. Also, if I need some help deciding how to develop my store, I'll ask you. Does that sound good?"

Tsuna and his friends nodded.

"Quest Complete!" said a small pop-up box. "You are now Allies with: Kobayashi Yui's Pet Shop. You are now Friendly with: Namimori Humane Society. You are now known to: Momokyokai Yakuza, Small Business Owners of Namimori."

Tsuna decided to freak out about the Yakuza later.

..

School started up again for Tsuna and his friends. Like always, Tsuna still had trouble following the teacher. Hana thought it was because his cracked seal meant he didn't learn the material as fast so the teacher was going too quickly for him.

Unlike always, Tsuna now had friends. Hana had apparently taken it upon herself to raise his grades. She complained it was because she couldn't hang out with stupid people, but really Tsuna could tell it was her way of taking care of him. That's what Kyoko said anyways, and she would know best

Ryohei had taken his declaration of becoming a better big brother to heart and was now nearly as protective of Tsuna as he was of Kyoko. Tsuna had only been cornered once in a month and had barely gotten hit. Hibari seemed to be doing something similar, but Tsuna saw him only regularly.

Unfortunately, Haru went to another school, so he didn't get see her as often, but they still met together regularly after school and spent the weekends together.

It was nice. Sometimes Tsuna wondered if this was what school was like for most kids. Then Hibari would corner him and demand that they do a dungeon, or Ryohei would accidently rip a door off of its hinges, or Kyoko and Haru would start making up attack names, and Tsuna would have to resist huddling in a corner and crying.

Even so, Tsuna enjoyed school, a lot more than he had. And he kept finding new things to enjoy.

One of these happened on October 14, his birthday.

"C'mon Tsuna!" Kyoko said laughing. "Let's go to the park today!"

"Okay!" said Tsuna. His mom had said that this weekend he was going to have a party, and he was really excited. Plus, people had actually wished him a happy birthday today! That had never happened before.

Kyoko led him to a clearing in a different part of the park then he normally went to. That was odd. Then, when he entered-

"Surprise!"

Tsuna looked around. There was Kyoko, Haru, Hana, and Ryohei, as normal, but there was also Grandma and Mama. He even saw Hibari up in a tree. And behind them is a table, a table with a cake and presents on it.

"Happy Birthday," Mama said as she put a hat on his head.

"I thought I was having a birthday party this weekend," he whispered.

She smiled at him. "What's the point of a surprise birthday party if you know about it beforehand?" she asked.

Tsuna blinked up at her, then looked at his friends (his _friends_ ) that had come together to celebrate his birthday.

His eyes prickled. He sniffed.

"Tsuna-kun?" Haru asked. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," he said. "It's just- I've never had friends over for a birthday party before." He beamed at his friends. "It's nice. It's really really nice."

There was a moment of silence as he rubbed his eyes.

Then Ryohei roared. "Sawada Tsunayoshi! I swear as your Onii-san, that this will be the most EXTREME BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!"

"E-eh?" Tsuna squeaked, but everyone around him was nodded determinedly. Even Hana.

And with that, his birthday party began.

It was absolute chaos.

..

There were party games.

"EXTREME SWING!" Ryohei yelled as he swung the bat at the piñata. He hit it so hard it ripped it from the tree it was hung on and into the trunk of another tree. Candy went everywhere. Tsuna felt bad for the piñata.

There was cake.

"Tsuna-kun!" Haru said. "Kyoko and Haru and Mama made this cake for you!"

Tsuna could tell. The top was covered in sprinkles of all shapes and colors and sizes. It was a sugary chaotic mess and it was delicious.

There were presents.

Tsuna really should have seen this coming. Both Hibari and Ryohei loved fighting. Both Hibari and Ryohei noticed that when he wasn't flinging Molotov's, he was using his fists. So of course both Hibari and Ryohei got him similar gifts. Hibari had gotten him a pair of brass knuckles (Tsuna had no idea where he had got a pair small enough for a ten year old but he didn't want to ask) and Ryohei had gotten him boxing gloves. And now they were this close to breaking out into a fight over which one he'd use. Luckily his Mama and Grandma were over in a corner talking and hadn't noticed the odd gifts.

Tsuna looked at the two pairs of weapons. The boxing gloves caused lower damage than the knuckles, but unlike the knuckles they had a stat for protecting his hands.

Tsuna bit his lip and thought.

"Hey Onii-san, Hibari," he started. "Would you be okay if I used the boxing gloves during practice and the brass knuckles during dungeon fights?"

They blinked at him, then looked at each other, agreed and went back to what they were doing.

Tsuna sighed in relief and went back to enjoying the party.

Overall, it was absolute chaos. Tsuna wondered what was wrong with him when he realized that he thought it was very nice and that he'd enjoyed it a lot.

..

The year continued on, and soon it was getting cold outside. Tsuna and his friends had noticed at the start of fall that the ghost dungeons had disappeared. Hana had thought that maybe they were seasonal dungeons. Tsuna couldn't tell if there were any new dungeons available in the fall, but he'd marked out all the ones at Hana's request, so they were looking to see if new ones showed up in the winter.

Along with the cold weather, there was also growth. At the beginning of the school year, Kuro and the other spiders were still small enough to fit in backpacks. Now however, they just couldn't without leaving a leg hanging out. Kuro had taken it badly, and Tsuna had gotten in trouble a few times after Kuro had followed him to school and teachers had freaked out.

Even so, the spider's growth and the cold weather had given Tsuna, Kyoko and Haru's knitting circle a chance to practice. Hana's research said that a lot of spiders didn't like the cold, so the three had teamed up to knit leg and abdomen warmers for their eight-legged pets.

These were given a test run one cold morning when the group met to have their regular practices.

Kyoko and Haru were sparring in a corner while Hana was practicing trick shots and Ryohei and Tsuna had teamed up. Hibari was somewhere in the trees doing who knows what, but nobody had gotten beat up so Tsuna was happy with that.

It was getting to the point where everyone usually took a break, when someone ran by yelling "Wait! Please stop!"

Tsuna peaked around to see Yamamoto Takeshi breathing heavily and looking around. "Where'd they go?" Yamamoto said to himself.

…

 **A/N:**

Duh duh dumm, Takeshi! Yes, he'll be next.

Thanks to harmless bystander for Hibari's pet idea. The actual pet will be implemented next chapter.

The reason for the whole Yakuza/Pet store event was because I wanted to show that it wasn't just dungeons and mythological creatures, you could also deal with more everyday things. It just kinda grew from there. I think it also shows how increasing nonphysical stats effects someone mentally, without changing their core personality. That plan was way too put together for a group of untrained children, even in the Reborn!verse.

Also about LVs, at the time of the pet shop mission, Tsuna was LV 8, the girls were LV 10, and Ryohei was LV 12. At the end of the chapter, Tsuna is LV 10, Kyoko and Haru are LV 11, Hana is LV 12, Ryohei is LV 15 and Hibari is LV 20. This is because of several reasons: first, while school gives you experience, it doesn't give you as much experience as clearing dungeons and doing events and missions that Tsuna and co. have been doing during the summer. Second, while each LV is slightly harder to obtain, every ten levels the XP cost increases exponentially. The reason for Hibari's insane growth is that, considering how much strength he gains after each fight in canon without any obvious help, I've decided he has an effect that causes him to gain double XP from each fight. Ryohei is just in the habit of constantly getting in fights, and constantly practicing, so that's his growth explained. Oh, and Kuro is LV 3 and is the size of a chihuahua at the time of the pet shop incident, and is LV 5 and the size of a beagle at the end of the chapter.

For everyone concerned that this growth is too rapid, let me give you the list of the LVs of the canon enemies they'll face *spoiler alert* Mukuro is ~LV 100, with his minions ranging from LV 50-80. Each of the Varia range from LV 98 (Levi) to LV 252 (Mammon). For reference, the Arcobaleno range from LV 153 (Skull) to LV 324 (Reborn) (exact LVs are subject to change, these are rough numbers). In contrast, when Reborn joins Tsuna's group, Tsuna will be ~LV 40 and Hibari will be ~LV 60. Also, unlocking flames is a huge LV boost. *spoiler end*

Also, a human of a lower LV is more dangerous than a monster of a higher LV, because monsters have set attack patterns and LV just dictates numbers. Humans can change how they fight and learn new attacks. So humans give more XP then monsters.

If you have any interesting ideas for seasonal monsters, feel free to drop me a note. Just keep in mind, I'm trying to keep things reasonably Japanese.

Also, this is my first time dealing with time skips and working with such a large group. If someone could send me some advice, I'd be grateful.

Another thing to let me know, is that I'm thinking of creating a separate chapter for omakes, canon and not, of the universe. Basically the stuff I'm not going to put in here because it would take too much away from the story. Should I or shouldn't I?

In order to deal with Takeshi, I'm creating what I call the Fanfiction Law of Balance, for when you are attempting to avoid either total crack or Cerebus Syndrome: What you add to the story must cancel out some problems, add others, and the weight of the two must be roughly the same. Do it right and you should end up hwith something that is about the same tone as the source story. You can tweak it, of course, but it should be a good rule of thumb to keep your fic on track. I had to make it because it would just be so easy to go to the extremes of both with my plot idea, but that's not what I want to read, so it's not what I want to write.


	8. Yamamoto Takeshi

**Disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is owned by Akira Amano. The Gamer belongs to Sangyoung Seong and Sang-a.

…

"Yamamoto Takeshi?" Tsuna called out. He had always thought that Takeshi seemed like a really friendly guy, but Takeshi was constantly surrounded by a large group of friends. It was weird that he was all alone here. "Are you okay?"

Takeshi whipped around to look at him. "Ah! Sawada-san… right? Hate to be a bother, but have you seen a pretty lady with a group of boys?" He gave Tsuna a slightly strained looking smile, and scratched the back of his head.

"Um, no?" Tsuna looked at Takeshi, who was ruffled and panting. "Why don't you tell us what's going on?" he asked as his friends gathered behind him to see what was happening.

Takeshi hesitated. "Haha, it's not really that important…"

Tsuna gave Takeshi a concerned look. "Please? I'd like to help, if something is wrong."

Takeshi paused and frowned. "I guess…" he said, and walked into the clearing.

…

"So, I was playing baseball with my friends, like normal, when I had to use the restroom," Takeshi started, sitting down with a bottle of water in his hands.

"I was coming back from the restroom when I saw my friends at the far corner of the field talking to this woman in a nice kimono. I called out to them, but they ignored me. Then, the woman started walking away, and my friends followed her. I ran after them, but they turned a corner, and I lost sight. When I turned the corner, they were nowhere to be seen. I've been looking for ages and I can't find them!"

Takeshi shut his mouth, clearly having said more than he planned. However, Tsuna was distracted by an orange pop-up. "Special Event Occuring: A Yuki-onna Birthday. A Yuki-onna has kidnapped a group of boys so that her daughter can meet males for the first time as a birthday present. Find the boys and get them back home safely or risk them getting lost and coming down with frostbite. Reward: A Winter's Blessing, [?], possibility of [?]"

The others caught the look in Tsuna's eyes. "Is it an event?" Hana asked Tsuna.

Tsuna nodded.

"What?" Takeshi seemed confused.

Hana stood, looking at Takeshi. "Take us to where you last saw them. We'll explain on the way."

..

"Okay, this is cool," said Takeshi, waving a hand at the screen in front of his face, before facing Tsuna with a serious look on his face. "And you're saying that my friends were kidnapped? That they didn't just take off without me?" They were standing in a corner of the baseball diamond. Tsuna had been told to stay behind to explain everything as he was the one with control while the others searched for a sign.

"I'm sorry, but yes," Tsuna said. He felt really, really bad for Takeshi, Tsuna knew he would be terrified if his friends went missing. Takeshi had barely even noticed the spiders.

Takeshi's shoulders relaxed a centimeter, before he looked forward and said, "I want to come with you then."

"Okay," said Tsuna.

Takeshi blinked and glanced at him. "Really?" he asked, surprised.

"Of course. You want to find your friends, right?" Normally Tsuna would hate to have another person involved, but he knew that if one of his friends was in danger, he'd want to help too. Also, they had a lot of fighters now, and even the spiders, so Takeshi probably wouldn't get hurt.

Takeshi beamed at Tsuna. "Right!"

"Hey! Haru's found something!" one of the girls yelled from near one of the walls.

Everyone gathered to see what it was.

"Look!" said Haru. "Footprints!"

They weren't just plain footprints either, these footprints were made of frost, and in the shape of geta.

"Yuki-onna are creatures of frost and snow," Hana said. "So these are probably our kidnapper's." She looked at Tsuna, his signal to take over.

Tsuna swallowed. "Okay. Does everybody have everything?" he asked. Seeing everyone nod, he continued. "Alright. We'll follow the tracks. Weapons out, and be careful. Takeshi, do you have something to defend yourself with?"

Takeshi nodded again, then jogged over to a group of bags. He pulled out a bat and held it up.

Hana touched Tsuna's arm. "We need to take the bags with us. They could be useful."

It only took a few seconds for Tsuna to toss the bags in his inventory, and then they set out.

They were lucky that the footprints didn't melt easy. Most of them were still there, but there were a few moments, in the sunny areas, where they were gone. Luckily they found them quickly, but it still freaked Tsuna out.

Eventually the trail led the group to a heavily wooded area. It was kinda scary.

"These are Extremely big trees!" Ryohei noted, quieter than he normally was.

Tsuna and the others nodded. "I didn't know we had an area like this in the park," Hana commented.

"We are nearing the edges of Namimori town," said Hibari. He was stalking ahead of the group. Tsuna surpressed a shiver. Hibari took any threat to students of the elementary school seriously. A kidnapping of a group? He wanted blood.

They continued on for a few minutes. Then Kyoko started to shiver. "Is it just me, or is it starting to get cold?" she asked.

As soon as Kyoko mentioned it, Tsuna became aware that it was very chilly. There was a bite to the air that hadn't been there before.

"We might be getting close," said Hana.

"Be ready," said Tsuna.

They continued on for a few minutes, then the forest unexpected ended.

The group stared out at the snow-dotted and frosty hills before them.

" **Congratulations**! You have discovered [The Frozen Hills]!"

Tsuna swallowed.

..

For a moment, the group alternated between staring at the box and staring at the surroundings. Then Hana muttered, "I don't think we're in Namimori anymore." She turned to Tsuna. "Check your map, please."

Tsuna pulled up his map. Instead of the familiar Namimori map, he was treated to a blank gray slate, dotted with question marks, and only a small section filled in with color at the very bottom.

"…We're in a whole new area, aren't we," said Hana.

Tsuna nodded, slightly terrified. Unfortunately, it seemed like he and Hana were the only ones to have such sane reactions.

"EXTREME!" Ryohei roared to the sky. "A whole new land to explore and conquer to the EXTREME!"

Kyoko and Haru were nodding along. "Right! We will prove ourselves as true battle sisters by rescuing Yamamoto-san's friends!" Kyoko said as Haru cheered next to her.

"So this is where my friends are," murmured Takeshi.

Hibari just examined the area, before clicking his tongue and striding forward, following the still visible footprints.

"Ah! Hibari, wait up!" Tsuna said as he stumbled forward. The rest of the group followed him, ranging from cheerfully determined to the grimly determined.

After a few steps, Hana caught up to Tsuna. "Hey," she hissed to him. "Keep your map up in case we get lost!" As soon as he nodded to her, she fell away slightly, muttering about the absurd things they got into. Tsuna winced, feeling a touch guilty. He mentally shook himself. Thinking about it wouldn't help him now.

The snow was getting higher now, and covering more of the ground. It was getting harder to see the Yuki-onna's footprints, but luckily now that there was snow on the ground they could see the boys' footprints.

Unluckily, the further they got the colder it got. After about half an hour, a slight wind started blowing. At that point, Hana made them stop and put on anything they could, including Tsuna's, Haru's and Kyoko's failed knitting projects. Tsuna also insisted that the spiders get on everyone's backs. That helped, but not a lot, especially once the wind picked up. By then, almost everyone's shoes had gotten slightly wet, and Tsuna was starting to get worried about frostbite.

He glanced at his map. They were barely a quarter of the way into the map, and they had been jogging most of the way to keep warm. Tsuna didn't want to stop them with people at risk, particularly in this cold, but… he had a good feeling about this question mark.

Tsuna suddenly blinked and rubbed his eyes. Had his vision been orange for a second? Tsuna shook his head. He must have been seeing things. Still, it didn't change the fact that they should stop and check how everyone was doing.

"H-hey," Tsuna started. Nobody stopped but they did look back.

"W-we're getting really cold, a-and we're right next to a question mark. Maybe we should check it out. It might be a way to warm up, or it could give us an idea of what we might find at the end of the trail."

The Sasagawas and Haru seemed to accept that pretty easily, but Hana and Takeshi both seemed to resist the idea. It was Hibari that decided it, simply walking in the direction Tsuna pointed out to him. The rest simply scrambled after him.

They entered as slightly forested area, full of scraggly evergreens and rocks jutting up from the snow.

It only took a few minutes before Tsuna's screen lit up orange, a single quotation mark appearing right in front of him.

"Hey-!" he started as everyone tensed. Almost immediately a brownish-white blur shot out at Hibari, who batted at it with a tonfa.

The tonfa smacked the blur to the ground, where it sat up-no stood up on four legs.

"A Japanese snow monkey?" Hana asked in confusion.

"Er, a young Japanese snow monkey," Tsuna corrected as he looked at the monkey's title.

"It's so cute," Haru whisper-squealed to Kyoko who nodded.

Hibari and the monkey warily eyed each other, both tense and in battle positions. The various spiders got off of their respective owners backs and formed a circle around the two combatants, something that made the monkey visibly nervous.

The monkey was the first to break, shooting at Hibari with a determined cry. This time, instead of simply being batted out of the air, when Hibari swatted at it the monkey clung to Hibari's tonfas like they were tree branches. When Hibari made to fling the monkey off it jumped to his other tonfa, where it leapt at Hibari's face. Hibari dodged and moved to swat the monkey again.

Tsuna thought it looked amazing. The monkey was an incredible acrobat, and Hibari was, as always, an excellent fighter. However, he could already see how this fight was going to end. The monkey was using too much energy, having to move its entire body, while Hibari only moved a little.

The monkey knew it too, and its movements started to get more and more desperate. And with that desperation, it started getting sloppy. Now, instead of bounding gracefully from one tonfa to Hibari, the monkey was barely hanging on, catching perches by the tips of its fingers. Finally, it tried one last desperate ploy, simply aiming at Hibari's chest.

Hibari swatted it out of the air like it was an annoying fly.

The monkey trembled as it got to its feet, still determined to fight. Hibari looked down at it. "I will not tolerate any that try to harm the students of Namimori," he said.

There was a beat. Then Hibari's brow furrowed. "What is a better name for a monkey than Lichi?" Hibari asked.

Everybody looked at Hibari for a moment. Then Hana and Tsuna fell over while Ryohei and the other girls congratulated Hibari.

..

It was cold, so they quickly decided on "Mite" probably because the monkey was small and mites fed off of lychee trees. Tsuna didn't know why that was a factor, and decided not to ask. The explanation would probably mess with his head more than the name would.

The monkey, suddenly friendly for whatever reason Tsuna didn't want to know, gestured the group along a hidden path. They walked along it for a short while, before Hana paused and ask, "Hey, is it just me or is it getting warmer?"

"Yeah, the ground doesn't seem to have as much snow," Kyoko said. They were now it a much rockier area, taking a winding, sloping path downwards. Up ahead several large rocks jutted up into the sky, more like small cliffs than boulders.

Mite squeaked, pointing towards a slight clef in the rocks ahead, before jumping up onto Hibari's shoulder.

Hibari went first, as it was a small split only one person could fit through at once. Then Hana went. "Nice!" she shouted back. "It's a hot spring!"

..

"Wowww," said Kyoko and Haru together. Tsuna silently agreed as Ryohei boomed out his approval. A series of small, steaming pools littered the winding passage. The whole place felt damp and warm, and everywhere, everywhere, there were monkeys. Older, larger monkeys relaxed by the edge while smaller, younger monkeys spashed about. A few of the monkeys glanced at the human intruders, but relaxed once Mite squeaked at them.

Tsuna had to grab at Kuro to stop him from just jumping into the water.

"It's too bad I didn't bring a bathing suit," Haru said.

"I know! I have such a cute one too," agreed Kyoko.

"It's too bad _we didn't bring towels_ ," Hana stressed. "In this weather, it might feel good to take a dip now, but if we don't dry off, it will be even worse when we go back out. We still haven't found Yamamoto's friends, remember-Hey you Blockhead!" she yelled suddenly as Ryohei made to jump in the pool as well.

Tsuna started, having temporarily forgotten their mission. His eyes swung over to where Takeshi was looking at the water, his characteristic smile nowhere to be found and a slight crease between his eyes.

"Hey," Tsuna started, wanting to cheer him up. "We can swing back around once we find them, maybe warm them up here before the final stretch, right?"

Takeshi smiled. "Yeah."

"But Hana, I'm cold, and the water looks EXTREMELY hot," Ryohei whined.

"Were you not listening when I said you'll frostbite!?" Hana snarled.

"Oi, what's all the fuss about? Sum ah us 're tryin' to relax here!" a deep voice growled from within a steamy part of the springs.

A dark shaped loomed up, walking closer. As it got clearer, Tsuna could make out horns. Then red skin, stretched across a hefty belly and thick, muscular limbs.

"Eeeeek! It's a namahage! The scariest demon!" Haru yelled as she hid behind Tsuna.

"Supposedly, they take naughty children," said Hana as she edged backwards.

Hibari and Ryohei readied themselves for a fight.

"Oh, what'er a couple ah human kids doin' round here? Peelin' yer blisters yet?" said the Namahage.

Tsuna looked around. Everyone seemed ready to fight, but he didn't like the look of this.

"E-excuse me?" he tried.

"Oh, an' one ah them's polite too!" the demon said with a laugh.

Tsuna took a deep breath. That was a positive response. No fighting yet.

"Excuse me," he said again, voice steadier. "Do you know where the Yuki-onna makes her home? We think she's taken some of our friends." He gestured at Takeshi, who had a baseball bat out like he was ready to start swinging.

"Eh?" said the namahage.

..

"Dang, that ain't right," said the namahage, whose name was Daikon as they found out, said after they'd finished explaining.

"Yuki-onna ain't supposed ta take kids, and it ain't even New Years," he complained, leaning back and cleaning out an ear with his pinky. Then Daikon growled and got to his feet.

"Humph. Fine. I'll help ya, kids. But first we're gonna stop by the village first, gonna need sum more help ta bring ya friends back."

Tsuna's noisier friends cheered. Tsuna just sighed in relief. Then he looked at Takeshi, who was finally smiling again.

..

It was a bit of a walk to the Namahage Village, but once they were there it was quite nice. Daikon's sister Mochi served them tea while Daikon rounded up some support.

"This tea is lovely," said Kyoko.

"Aw, thank ya kindly," said Mochi. Unlike Daikon, she had a softer voice, although it was still deeper than what Tsuna was used to. She also had a sweet, motherly feel and Tsuna liked her immediately.

Haru sipped her tea quietly. Tsuna had gotten out of her that she'd always been afraid of namahage during the trip over. Tsuna, understanding deeply what it was like to be forced to be around something that scared you, instantly offered whatever support he could. Haru told him he was fine, she just wanted to get used to it.

There came the sound of a commotion from out front. "Oh, let me go see what that is," said Mochi said, getting up. As she neared the door, it burst open and a green namahage fell into the room.

"Mochi," he yelled. "Have breakfast wi' me!"

"Idiot Mitsuba!" Daikon yelled. "Stay away from mah sister!"

Mochi just laughed.

"It looks like yah group's here," she said to Tsuna and his friends. "Go on, naw, get yer friends back."

"Thanks!" said Takeshi and Ryohei as they ran to the door.

"Thank you very much," said Tsuna, Hana and Kyoko.

Hibari and Haru just bowed.

Outside were a group of namahage and what looked like hairy horses. There were far more horse-things than people, but they all had what looked like woven blankets on their backs.

"Cool," Tsuna whispered to himself.

"Yep! Yah like them?" said Daikon to his left.

"Gah!" startled Tsuna as he tripped into the snow.

"Heh. Sorry 'bout that," Daikon said as he helped Tsuna up. "These are Kebukai Uma*. If there's as many kids as yah say there 're, we'll need them ta bring the kids back."

"A-ah. I've never ridden anything before," Tsuna said shyly. "B-but I'd like to."

Daikon boomed out a laugh and ruffled Tsuna's hair.

"Well, yah'll be ridin' today. And, Ah'd bet that yer spiders get big 'nough ta ride."

"Really?" Because on one hand that sounded awesome, but on the other hand the thought of spiders that big was kinda terrifying.

"Sure. Yah friends and yah can come on by aftah this is done and we'll show yah what it takes."

" **Mentorship Offer** ," said the pop-up. "Acquire Daikon (Namahage) as a mentor. Daikon can teach riding skills, straw weaving, winter outdoors and large animal handling skills. By acquiring Daikon as a mentor, experience in these skills is doubled."

"That sounds great," said Tsuna.

..

It was only a short while until the caravan reached a place deep in the heart of the map. The center was a large mountainous region, covered by snow and with a fierce wind. Daikon and the others had lent Tsuna and his friends thick straw coats, but that didn't stop the biting chill.

"Up ahead," one of the namahage yelled. Tsuna stared into the whiteness that surrounded them, trying to make out whatever it was that they had seen. As the caravan trudged closer, he realized he could make out a faint light in front of them.

Slowly, the light became a lamp, and the dark spot behind the lamp became a house.

"We're almost there!" someone yelled. In a few minutes they reached the house.

The Kebukai Uma were guided into a half-circle around the entrance. Then the namahage helped Tsuna and his friends down from the saddle.

One of the namahage volunteered to knock at the door, while the others gathered around. They waited a moment, but there was no response.

They knocked again. Tsuna and several of the namahage shifted uneasily, and glanced at each other. Finally, a young voice yelled, "I'm coming," and someone opened the door.

When the door opened, Tsuna blinked at the person behind it. It was just a young girl, maybe a few years older than he was. She was very pretty, in a classical Japanese, and her title said "Young Yuki-onna".

"Yes?" she asked, looking slightly confused at all the people at her door.

"Excuse me," Tsuna said when it seemed like no one would talk. "Would you mind returning Yamamoto's friends?"

Daikon seemed to rally himself at that, and said, "Yes, your mother shouldn't spirit away children like that, it's bad for everyone."

The young snow maiden blinked at that before her face twisted in rage. Tsuna got into a fighting position but she turned around and screamed "Mother! You told me they were here of their own free will!"

"What!?" came the answering screech.

The younger Yuki-onna ran back into the house, screaming about how her mother had lied.

"Er, excuse me," Tsuna said as stepped into the house. He paused at the step, not wanting to be rude, but also wanting to keep his shoes on.

Daikon clapped him on the back and pulled him up. "Don't ya worry 'bout that. They're rude first," he said. Then he started walking inside.

Tsuna nodded, even though Daikon couldn't see him and followed him into the house.

The hallways would have been pretty if it wasn't so cold inside. Nice artwork covered the walls and it was clearly a well-tended home.

That didn't change the fact that there was currently what sounded like a loud screaming match going on in the back of the house. Maybe more than a screaming match, Tsuna though as he heard something shatter.

Eventually, Tsuna, Daikon and the others following behind them came across a central room. It looked like a small blizzard had happened inside. Snow blanketed the floor and there were large icicles everywhere. In the center of the room were the young girl and what seemed to be her mother, both screaming at each other. There were also claw marks going through the wall panels, and Takeshi's friends strewn about, eyes glazed over and looking nowhere in particular.

"Guys!" Takeshi yelled as saw them, running forward past Tsuna to grab one of his friend's shoulders and shake him. Unfortunately, this movement drew the attention of the two Yuki-onna. The older one pointed at them and screamed "You! This is all your fault! You ruined my daughter's birthday party!"

The younger screamed, "SHUT. UP. MOM! They didn't ruin anything! Nothing except the illusion that you'd follow your words! I told you I wanted them to come of their own free will!"

"They'd have hurt you! You can't trust men!" the mother screamed back. "It's my job to protect you!"

"By lying to me!?"

"By keeping them from hurting you!"

The daughter screamed again. "SHUT! UP! I. just. wanted," and here she gasped, with tears in her eyes, "I just wanted to see, FOR MYSELF, what it was I've only heard stories about. I'm thirteen. I'm not a child anymore, it's time for me to start growing up. Why couldn't you let me have this one little thing?"

The mother looked sad. "Daughter…"

The daughter shook her head. "Go," she said. "Just go."

Tsuna felt like he was intruding on an extremely private moment. He looked at the ground as the mother left. The daughter smiled sadly at the group.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she said. Then she looked at the door her mother had left through. "Honestly, I love her, but sometimes it feels like I'm the parent and she's the child."

"I'm sorry," said Tsuna, helpless to say anything else.

She shook her head. "It's fine, it's not your fault. She had a bad experience with a man, once, and she's never been the same since."

Then she turned and walked towards where Takeshi was still crouched over his friend. She looked at his friend for a few moments, and it seemed like her eyes were glowing. She shook her head.

"Mother placed a sort of stasis spell on them. It dampens their will, but it also protects them against the cold. I can remove it now, but I recommend just bringing them back into the mortal world. It'll break then, and you won't have to worry about the cold until then."

"Oh," Takeshi said, in a small voice. "Okay."

"I'm sorry," she said again. "If I knew she was going to do this, I would have never asked her if I could have boys over."

Takeshi swallowed. "It's fine," he said. "It's fine, just, let me take them home."

"Of course."

..

The packed the caravan, the baseball boys tied onto the backs of the hairy horses and covered with blankets.

As they got ready, the younger girl appeared outside again.

She approached Tsuna and his friends, who paused to look at her. "Let me do something to make this up to you," she said. Then she leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Tsuna's head. It felt like a tiny piece of ice attached itself to Tsuna from that spot, and then it traveled down into his heart, where it dispersed. Suddenly, the chill didn't seem so bad.

"You have received A Winter's Blessing! You gain 20% resistance to cold and 20% XP gain to all snow and ice related skills from now on!"

"This will protect and help you in the cold," she said as she kissed each one of them on the forehead.

They said their thanks.

When they left, Tsuna gazed up at the lonely looking snow girl from his spot on the horse. He looked until he couldn't see anything anymore. Then he turned around and looked towards home.

..

It was much faster on the horses than walking, and in about an hour they were back at the edge of the forest.

"Thank you," Tsuna said as he helped the namahage get the last kid get off of his horse.

"Of course," said the namahage. "It was a pleasure meeting such nice young kids. Normally we only deal with the naughty ones.

Tsuna laughed and rubbed the back of his head. Then he looked bashfully at the ground. "U-um, if you don't mind…" he trailed off, but the namahage kept looking at him expectedly. "…would you mind if we visited sometimes?" he asked.

"Of course not, we'd love to have you!" The namahage boomed with a laugh.

Tsuna smiled. "Thank you," he said.

"Not a problem."

..

It took a few minutes of walking through the forest for the spell to wear off.

"Hey, wait a minute," one of the kids said as he came to himself. "Where are we? And why," here he groaned and rubbed his head. "Why does my head hurt so much?"

That seemed to be key needed for all the baseball players to rub their heads and groan too.

"You guys!" said Takeshi, all happy, "You're back!"

"Eh, Takeshi?" one of the kids said. "What happened?"

"You guys started wandering off all of a sudden," Takeshi said, starting the tale they'd all agreed on before they got here.

"It took me forever to find you!" And here Takeshi gave that patented laugh and smile of his. "Don't worry me like that, I thought you guys were gone!"

"Sorry," said most of the kids.

"Hey," said one of the kids, looking around. "What are _they_ doing here?" He raised his hand and gestured at where Tsuna and his friends were scattered around.

"I asked them for help, so they helped me find you guys," Takeshi said.

The kid frowned. "Okay, I can see Kurokawa and Sasagawa being helpful, but why'd you ask _Dame-Tsuna_?"

Tsuna flinched.

"Tsuna isn't dame," said about five people at once, Takeshi with a startled edge, Kurokawa with a biting edge, and the two Sasagawas and Haru with a disapproving edge.

The kid sneered. "Yeah, right. You shouldn't be around him, Takeshi. You'll catch his dame-ness."

"Ohh?" said a dark voice above the kid. He looked up and paled. Hibari was perched above him, tonfa's out. He smiled. "I'll bite you to death."

The kid screamed something but a loud beep cut him off. Then Hibari and Mite leapt out of the tree and onto the kid.

The baseball kids scattered, heading towards the playground and the safety of their own homes.

"Ah, guys!" Takeshi said as they ran, one arm outstretched to his friends. Then he turned around and looked at Tsuna and his friends.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sure Yamashita didn't mean it-"

"Yeah, he did," Hana cut him off.

Takeshi flinched and looked at the ground. "Sorry," he repeated.

"It's fine," Tsuna said. "I'm used to it."

That just made Takeshi flinch even harder. He started toeing with a rock with his foot.

"I just wanted to say thank you," he said finally. "And, if you don't mind, could I hang out with you guys sometimes? You're actually pretty cool."

Even though that made him worried for what Takeshi would get up to, and what dangers he could be exposed to, all Tsuna could say was "Sure."

Takeshi smiled at Tsuna as a pop-up said, "Yamamoto Takeshi is now a Friend".

Then Takeshi was laughing as he said goodbye, and was turning and running towards home.

Tsuna smiled as he watched him leave. Then Hana leaned down and asked, "So how long has the game been censoring any profanity you hear?"

"Eh?"

..

Takeshi started hanging with them periodically after that. He didn't really do as many dungeons as the others did, preferring to spend most of his time with his baseball buddies. It was nice though, having him around.

He and his friends go back to the Frozen Hills and the Namahage Village several times, including an "interesting" camping trip by Daikon. Haru got over her fear of namahage after a few weeks and then fiercely threw herself into becoming everyone's friend. She succeeded, admirably. They also learned a lot about riding animals of all kinds. Shiso, the main Kebukai Uma tamer and village chief, thought that Kuro and the others would quickly reach riding size, so he helped them design appropriate saddles. This lead Hana to start calling their herd of spiders the nightmare riders.

Tsuna also spent some time with the Yuki-onna, whose name was Tsuki. For all her inner strength and pragmatism, she was quite naïve about the outside world. Tsuna enjoyed being able to explain things for once, and she enjoyed time with someone who understood the kind of lonely she had been.

Everyone cried when spring rolled around and the gate to the Frozen Hills closed until the next winter. Tsuna also cried when it came time for Hibari to graduate, leaving Tsuna to his bullies. This was very unhelpful, as something had pissed Hibari off that week and he'd been fiercer than normal. Once Tsuna's tears were added, something in Hibari seemed to snap and he took out a good chunk of the student population. Tsuna regretted crying.

Tsuna regretted crying even more, when it became apparent on the first day of the new school year that somehow, somehow, Hibari had decided that he needed his own army.

Incidentally, that's how Tsuna met the Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee.

…

 **A/N:**

*I couldn't find a good horse/ox/cow yokai for them to ride, so I just translated hairy horse into Japanese via Google translate.

You know, despite the fact that this was supposed to be his introductory chapter, it didn't really feel like there was much Takeshi in here.

Also, the Committee is Hibari's army, not Tsuna's.

And all the namahage are named after food on purpose.

Fon, when he does his check-up with Hibari and finds that Hibari has a monkey too now, thinks it is the most adorable thing ever. Even the name is adorable, and Lichi agrees. Mite ends up emulating his master in regards to the smaller than normal monkey invader: you respect the skills, but damn do you want to beat him.

Again, on Takeshi, my take on him at this age is that he's a very social person, and his main buddies mean a lot to him. In canon, he only became Tsuna's friend after being abandoned by his old friends, but that didn't happen here, so Takeshi is split between his baseball friends and Tsuna, and he will be for quite some time.

Thank you so much for everyone that sent me ideas! As you can see, I've added a few of them here. There will be seasonal areas, but not in the same places as the others, so it might take a while for Tsuna and co. to find them all. Also sorry if I haven't responded to any of the reviews, you guys really overwhelmed me with your response.

The omake stories will hopefully go up in a few days. I'm not promising anything though, I wrote most of this during a day break we had.

LVs: Tsuna is LV 13 at end of story. The girls are all at LV 15, Ryohei is LV 18 and Hibari is LV 25. Takeshi is LV 10, because he spends most of his time playing baseball. He'll catch up, don't worry.


End file.
